wow what a week!

Hello again my lovely family!!

Thank you for all your emails, i really enjoyed reading them as always. I am glad that everyone is doing pretty well it sounds like and keeping busy. Ange, those pictures look very exciting. I am happy for you. And hopefully everything calms down somewhat at home and at work. Don't wear yourself out and try to fit in TOO much stuff in the day!

So yes, friday night i headed up to moscow on the night train with sis. ionina and sis. zymazhonova. We had fun talking and then tried to get as much sleep as we could, haha. that didn't work out to well. We got in moscow early sat morning and then got to see the other missionaries in our mission and in the moscow mission. That was very fun and it was good to see the elders from the mtc and sis kelly. They are all just wonderful. Then we all sat down and got to hear sis and Elder Perry speak. It was great and wonderful and there was a strong spirit there. We didn't actually get to talk to elder perry, we just shook his hand and told him our names and where we were from. But it was very cool!!!!! First apostles hand that i have every shaken! So we all enjoyed that. Afterwards we took our P-day and went up to red square again. When i have time i will try to email pics again. And i think i walked down the street that matt damon had a car chase on in the borne movie. pretty cool huh?! And then sat night we got back on a night train and came back to voronezh early sunday morning for church. There is some beautiful and peaceful countryside scenery to see when you ride those night trains though. I like it. I don't know how much sleep you get but it is always a fun experience.

So we are still meeting with kacenya and nastia. I am very excited to be working with them both and they are both wonderful. The baptismal date is set for the 19th, but i think that they both might need more time to really gain a strong testimony. So i just pray that we can teach them with the spirit and that they will be ready to be baptized, whether it be the 19th or a few weeks later. We are also still working a lot with the members and with the less active members. We have been trying to do some more contacting too, but that has been difficult. oh, yesterday we went with the elders and sang in a park some russian hymns for a while. While we sang we had a few members in the ward hand out our information, etc. I enjoyed it and the elders got a few contacts from it so that was good! I like doin creative things, so maybe we can think of some more creative ideas and put those into play eventually. We will see.

So yes, my new companion arrived last night, and I am very excited to be working with her. Yes, she is a russian. As of now in our mission we have i think 8 russian sisters (cause one just came from the mtc) and 4 american sisters. So it is very likely that as a sister you will spend much of your time speaking (or attempting to speak) a lot of russian. It will be good for me to speak russian more, but to be honest i am quite nervous too. Actually, very nervous. I'll probably spend a lot of my time and brain power just tryin to think of simple sentences to say to fill the silence. Man, I haven't really studied any other languages, but i feel like russian is like the hardest ever!! I never imagined it to be so hard! I thought that i would do pretty well at it, but honestly, I think that the language is something that is very challenging for me and something that i will struggle with for a while. But what do ya do? I can tell that I have progressed a little though. I understand better. But i don't know if that is a good thing or not. When you don't understand what people are saying you don't hear all the rude things they say. I think i liked it better that way. The other day we were contacting and then this person said something and i was just thinkin ok cool. But then when i actually thought through it for a min and realized what they said i was thought like "hey, what the heck, that was kinda rude!" And you get to hear and understand all the wonderful comments when people tell you your russian is bad and that they don't understand you because your accent is horrible. Oh well, haha. It's kinda funny, but kinda different too. People here seem to be very blunt and just say whatever they feel like saying...which is very different from what i am used too i guess. The other day we contacted into a lady who started yelling at us and asking us why are we doing such a stupid thing as being on this mission. She told us that we should be married and having children, and that we are wasting our time!

So yes, i am excited to be working with my new companion sis. gorgavenka. She has been on the mission for 6 months i think and did not have the opportunity to go to the mtc in provo because of visa problems. But she just went to the temple (finland i think) last week for the first time, so that was very exciting for her! But yes, my russian is bad and my teaching is bad too, so i hope that i can be an asset to this companionship and that we can teach so that we invite the spirit together. I think it might be difficult for a while and a lot of hard work, but that's ok, because what part of a mission isn't eh? Sis. gorgavenka told me that i am her first amercian companion, so hopefully after she serves with me she will want to serve with another american, right?!!!

Well family, i love you and never forget it!! And like i always say, keep reading those scriptures and saying your prayers and doing those regular habits. I was thinking the other day how helpful habits really are. They seem so simple, but when put into practice somehow are harder than they sound to do. But they invite a spirit into your life that you will never forget. I promise. I was thinking about virtue the other day, and how satan tries so hard to fill your mind with meaningless and not so good thoughts. Whether they be thoughts of sin, bad thoughts about others, critical thoughts, prideful thoughts, scary thoughts, sad thoughts, worrysome thoughts...satan tries so hard to get you. And he will, if you let him. I always thought that virtue meant to not think about sinful things, but now i think that having virtuous thoughts means a lot more. It means taking all of those bad thoughts, whatever they may be, and just throwing them away. It's hard, but i know that reading scriptures daily, personally and as a family, and saying individual and family prayers, and having family home evening, and attending church, and attending the temple, are little acts that add up to great great amounts. Satan is working so hard in this day and age to get us, and you need to always be on your guard...CONSTANTLY. If you are not on your guard he will just creep right on in until eventually you don't even notice when he does anymore. So keep doing those good things, and filling your day with the best things. And be grateful for temples!!! I was thinking about how lovely it was to attend the temple every week in the mtc. And now i don't think ill have an opportunity to go for the rest of my mission. Which is really sad. I think that i really took for granted the fact that at home i had a temple basically in arms reach in all directions. I was able to go every week, any time i wanted. And now, on my mission, the time that i would really like to go the most, there is a slim possibility. But the members here are getting a closer temple in Kiev in August, and this is a very exciting and wonderful thing for them. I didn't even realize what a huge thing this was until I came here and saw how important it was to them. So i say, be grateful for the temple, and attend the temple regularly, and regularly with your family and with your spouses. ok, enough of my soap box again for this week!! Again i love you all and thank you for everything.

Sending hugs and kisses your way until next week!
Sister Acacia Brown

hello again!!

Hello again my loverly family!!

Well, this weeks email is going to be a quick and spastic one because we need to write really quick. Saturday we will be in moscaw because elder perry will be there to speak to us!! yahooo!!!!!!!!!! i am very excited! I have been looking forward to this! pres woolley told me that elder perry wanted to speak to all of the missionaries there individually! pretty cool huh?! so i will have to let you know if that happens, and what he talks to us about. i am excited. We will take a night train tomorrow (friday) up to moscow and get in early sat morning. we will go to the conference and then take half our pday and do stuff up in moscow. that is why today we don't have much time and are doing more missionary work. we will take another night train back down here and get in early sunday morn before church starts. it will be a long weekend, but it will be wonderful.

So this week, as you know, has been a busy one. No i do not have a "real" companion yet. I had anya for a few days, and then we grabbed a 17 year old girl in the branch to be my companion for the next couple days. She speaks no english, and so with our little communicating ability and no experience, we had fun tryin to figure stuff out. haha. but we did well and continued to meet with our investigators. Right now i am with the 2 russian sisters from lipistcks. they came down to be with me until transfers next week. So in a week i should get a permanent companion, well at least for six weeks. President already told me that he is really excited about it, and that it won't be with any of the sisters i am with now. So we will see!!! I hope i am able to stay in voronezh for at least another transfer. I really like the people in the ward here, and would miss them. But we will just see.

Well, i am glad that the party for gma was such a blast!! man yall just know how to throw the parties without me! That is great that everyone was able to be together. and spence is home!!!!! wow, time flies! So he is doing good? hey my cuz spence...shout out to you for the week. Send me a quick email if you can and tell me all about the mish! is it weird being home? did time fly for you? wow oh wow. crazy stuff. but so fun!!

Our investigators are still doing well! We are still meeting with them regularly and tyring to get them ready for their baptism on june 19th. the elders in the district almost have a few baptismal dates too so this is very very exciting for voronezh. We are looking forward to the 19th.

Sorry that this email was kinda weird and did not have much about the mission and investigators. It was kinda a crazy one, and i hope things get back to "normal" (whatever that is! haha) soon.

I love you all and it was great to hear from you! Keep up the great work!

ps...dallin "where is my email!!!!"

Loves,

Sister Brown

fun fun russia

Family, my love!

Hello again! another week come and gone! crazy crazy. This week has been quite an eventful one, and i will tell you about that all a little later. So, thank you thank you for those pictures!! i loved them! I was actually thinking the other day that i wanted to see some pictures of y'all, cause i felt like i hadn't seen you in forever! crazy that even in those picutres the kids look so grown up! and ange looks so old! i guess it is cause she turned 16. wow time flies. I can't believe that y'all do fun stuff without me!! little stinkers! haha jk. You all look great and look like you are having fun and doing well. And man! aren't terence and rhen just big studs getting their pictures taken with all sorts of people! man i love those boys and wish i could be there for that fun stuff. Oh well, i am having a lot of excitement out here too!! Looks like ange had a crowd at her party. it was really weird to see that picture in the front room and see the carpet. no one here has carpet. They all just have cement floors that are painted, or that have some type of linoleum on them. Our home is probably 6 times the size of the apts here. kinda crazy.

So as of now i am with a temporary companion, and president is in the works of trying to figure out what to do. My old companions mother has been suffering from cancer for the past few years, and in the last months it has gotten pretty bad. they thought she might need to come home, and then tues. morning she got the call from her father that she needed to come home. So tues. we scrambled and got everything packed up for her, and then she was on a flight back to canada in just a few short hours. Sadly, she will probably not be coming back. She only had a few months left on her mission, and so I think they set her apart and were just going to give her an honorable release from her mission. My heart aches for her and her family and what they are going through. So now we have an odd number of sisters in the mission and i don't have a companion. So thank goodness the Lowry's just live down stairs, and i stayed with them for the rest of tues. then we grabbed a young single adult girl from the branch who is now my temporary companion for yesterday and today. Tomorrow there are sisters coming down from lipsitcks for zone conference, so they will be my companions i think for tomorrow and sat until president figures something out. I don't know what he will figure out, but we will see! We thought maybe he might stick me with a 3-some somewhere, but then that would take the sisters away from investigators here who are working towards baptism. So we will see. I'll keep you updated. I heard they might give me a mini missionary that i could help train. Which is extremely scary for me because i don't know any russian and need someone to train me!!! i don't know what i am doing! but we will see. As long as i know where i live and how to get back home then i should be good right? haha. So they turned off the hot water yesterday for 2 weeks! yahoo!!! so now we get to do it the old fashioned way and boil water and take a nice sponge bath for the next two weeks. Should be fun!! I don't know why the government just turns stuff off randomly. It's weird. but, oh well, you just deal with it.

Dad, you had asked about english lessons. We teach some private lessons throughout the week and also have an english club at the church on fridays. Honestly, english is a good way to get people to come to the church building and get them interacting with church members. It is often hard to introduce them to the gospel right off the bat, cause many times they are very against any of that kind of stuff. But if you can get them to do english with you, then sometimes you can work in gospel topics and try to get them interested in having gospel discussions. We usually just advertise by making little fliers and then we go street contacting and just talk to people and ask them if they learn english and if they would like to come to a free english club. Usually the younger kids like it the best. and yes, i had said something about teaching piano lessons. And we all thought that would be a good idea. But we haven't gotten anything started yet since all the confusion with the companions, but once stuff settles down a little bit (if it ever does haha) then with my new companion hopefully we can get that started. the hard thing with piano and english is some times you can just have eternal lesson takers who don't want to know anything about the gospel but still want to learn piano. So you just don't want to end up with a bunch of lessons that aren't going anywhere as far as teaching the gospel. So we will see. And dad, i love your OWL(obedient, work, love people). I think about it often, and try my best to do that.

So, onto our investigators. Kacenya wants to get ready to be baptized on the 12th of june!! I am excited. Her husband doesn't understand though why she needs to be baptized if she is already a good person. So We are trying to work with her and get her ready. Hopefully i get a companion soon so we can really get to workin. And we have another young investigator, Nastia, who is the sister of a young man in the ward who just got baptized in oct. their uncle is a younger man who just got married in the temple to a young girl, and they are in our ward too. So between them and their brother they have been talking to her about the gospel. We had family home evening with them monday night, and Nastia asked if she could get baptized!! it was crazy! we just met her the sunday before, and we haven't taught her any of the lessons. But she wants to be baptized on the 12th, and so we are going to do the best we can to teach her all the lessons and get her ready by then. I am very excited, and she is the sweetest girl ever. See what can happen when you get the ward members to help find people and get their family and friends interested in the gospel?!!! miracles happen. It has been tough to find referrals through the ward members, but when it happens it is wonderful. i am very excited for nastia. These people are so strong. Nastia and her brother anton both go to a university and live together here in voronezh. their mother died 5 years ago from cancer, and their father lives in some other city. Anton's face lite up when his sister asked about baptism, I am very happy for them. And their uncle was able to do the temple work for their mother in the finland temple. It is amazing the humbling circumstances that the people here live in, and how strong some of them are. It is amazing. It is exciting to see the hope that the gospel brings to people's lives when the world can be so depressing.

The other day we were contacting, and we stopped a young girl. An old man heard what we were talking about and started yelling at us and saying don't you talk to our young people about stuff like that! We get that alot. You will be talkin to someone and then someone walking by will hear and then think it is part of their business to come save the other person from what you are saying. So he was telling us that we can talk to old people about our church all we want, but please don't corrupt our young people with your american church. They are the only hope we have from russia, we don't want them to all be Americanized. Well, we lost a contact because of that, but it gave me a little look into the minds of the people here. Russian people love their country, just like we love america. And they see the church as a threat to their country, because if the young people join, they will many times move to america and leave their russian culture behind. It is true, and i can understand how that is hard. A lot of times the strong young members here move to america, or find an american spouse and eventually end up leaving russia for america also. So i can see why the older people think this american church is destroying their country, but at the same time they just don't understand that that is exactly the opposite of what we are trying to do. We are trying to build a strong base of the church here in russia, so that when people join the church they have support here, and they can find a spouse here, and grow up and build the church here in russia. But now that is kind of difficult. there just aren't many good members here to marry, so many times people will go out to america and find a spouse there. I continue to pray that the young people here will be able to find themselves a good spouse here and be able to build the gospel in their own homeland.

Well family, i love you and have rambled on too long. thank you for all of your emails and pictures!! oh, happy late b-day gma!!!!!!!!! i thought about you on tues. and i hope you know that i love you! oh and mom, i need to get you the correct address for the mission office. Yes, you should be able to send stuff there and it should be ok. Usually people are in and out of the office every couple weeks or so and pick up the mail for their cities. So it may take a while to get here, but it would get here. I have heard that sometimes people will put a picture of Christ on there too, and it makes them a little more nervous about taking something. But as long and you don't ever send anything really valuable you should be ok. Well love you all!! have a great week! dallin, where is my email?!!! haha. love you!

RUSSIA MOSCOW WEST MISSION

Muravskaya Street, Bldg. 1 Floor 3

Moscow 125310

Russia

Until next week! Loves!

Sister Brown

exciting to hear from you as always

Hello my family!!

Well, first off, before i forget...because it has really been bugging me and i just wanted to apologize and forget about it. I don't know why, but i find myself thinking a lot, and just after being here and interacting with different types of people, I realized how much it bothers me when people don't want you to help them do anything because they are too independent and can do it all on their own, and they think that their way is always the right way. Well, ok, to the point....I realized that it bothers me when people do this because i am the same way!!!!! and for some reason i thought back and all the dumb and rude things i said or did to you all (my lovely family) were brought to my mind and it just bothered me really bad so i just had to say sorry. I just remember that before i left on my mission i probably wasn't the nicest person ever. I remember one night that you mom, dad, and dallin, were trying to console me and help me with some thing i was frustrated and complaining about, and I got upset and wouldn't let you console me. Im sorry. And i remembered that i told noelle i would paint her fingernails before i left on my mission and then i was "too busy" and so i never did. sorry noelle. And I remember i was being judgemental and stupid and i said something to ange about her skirt being somewhat short, and i know that it hurt your feelings ange but i never apologized for it because i believed i was right. Im sorry ange. and i remember that i was making some cookies, and joe wanted to help me but i didn't let him because i wanted to do them all by myself and i thought that the way i made them was better. im sorry joe. And i know that this is silly, but it was just weighing on my mind and so i wanted to apologize. Sometimes i think that i am an awesome daughter and sister, but now i realize that when i think that i am being way way prideful and need to do a little self check. I just hope that despite my weaknesses and my controlling and prideful nature, that you all know that i really do love you. I was reading the talk elder bednar gave in oct. conference and i realized i don't think i ever really told you all that, cause i just assumed you knew. Sorry and i hope that you can forgive me for all the stupid things that i do and say. And i think that you know that i love you, but I just wanted to tell you so know. I love you all!!!!

I'm glad that everyone is doing pretty well. As always, good to hear from ya. I hope you gave lacee my love, and also alvin and the rest of the fam. Wow ange, sounds like quite the party!!!!! oh man fun fun. That is awesome dallin that you did that all! Way to go d bro!! And ange, haha, that is funny about the story of your friends you told me. And as always, it is fun to hear those cute stories about joe and noelle. man i love them. That's cool about work dad, glad it is keeping you on your toes!! keep up the good work, im sure your doing just great!

Ok, so....back to missionary work. welp, to be honest, there is not a ton. We have heard that people keep saying (and i don't know who "people" are) but they keep saying that Voronezh is a "dead city". Which is really sad. I don't believe it one bit, but at times it is hard to not wonder if it is heading in that direction. I really do pray that we can keep our heads high and have the spirit with us and be able to find those people that are looking. Cause i do know that they are here somewhere. We just haven't found them yet. And i know that the Lord and pres. Wolley would not send missionaries into this city of 2 million if they did not have faith that there are people here waiting to hear the good news of the gospel.

We have a few investigators that are progressing a little bit. Our investigator Kacenya is just the sweetest person ever, and has the sweetest little son. I just wish i understood what she was saying. But i can feel hear sweet spirit. And she wants to change. She said that she wants to get baptized!! So that is very exciting! and hopefully we can progress to that point. She just needs to talk to her husband about it first. We would love for him to come in on our lessons too and desire to be baptized, but we learned today that he might really need some help. To be honest, sometimes i just get so frustrated with the men out here, and how ridiculous and controlling they can be over their wives and children. If they only knew what they had and what they are giving up by doing stupid stupid things. At times you just want to go up to all of the men and just shake them around and be like "What are you doing!!!!!!!". I pray that her husband is touched by the spirit though, so that their little family of three can eventually be blessed by the blessings of the temple. Seeing this makes me very grateful for the wonderful men i have in my life and for their examples to me and for them staying worthy of their priesthood. So, my little spill from the soapbox...Men, stay worthy of the priesthood. Look at your beautiful families and realize what you have. Stay true to the good man your family believes you to be.

My russian is getting a little better. It definitely takes a lot of time though. Mostly i can just understand other people a little better. I don't know how much better i can speak. haha. I hear people and be like oh, i want to say this to you...but then you try to open you mouth and say it and realize you don't know how. fun stuff, fun stuff. I am still tryin to say what i can on lessons and things, even though it is only like 5 short really bad grammar and broken sentences. who knew a language would be so hard? i didn't. maybe my mouth was not made to form russian sounds and words. but it's all good. things will come with time and patience. In the mean time, i keep somewhat quiet cause i can't say much else.

We met with a young girl from our english club the other day, so we would love to keep meeting with her. Ill let you know how it goes! And we are working right now a lot with our area book, and also with the less actives in our branch. There are so many it is crazy. I would say that like 3/4 of the people on the ward list are inactive and just don't find the importance of coming to church. well, hopefully they will let us meet with them and see otherwise.

The weather has weirdly cooled down a little bit and has actually rained a lot. It is funny because it leaves these huge puddles in all the unlevel sidewalks here and we find ourselves dodging and hopping over puddles very often. its fun.

Well, as always i love you very very much. Keep up the good work and keep doing right. I like the thing that elder bednar said in the oct. 2009 conference. Something to the effect that..every family home evening, every family prayer, every family scripture study is a brushstroke on the canvas of our souls. Love it!!!!!

Sending lots of hugs and kisses from half a world away!

Sister Brown

happy belated bday ANGE!!!

Dear Family,

How is everyone today? As always it was great to get your emails and talk to you on sunday!!! wahoooo!!! thank you, thank you. your awesome. I don't know what all of this "you are a great example to us" is...honestly. YOU ALL are the great examples!!!! I wouldn't be here today if it were not for you and your loving support, and I definitely would not even be who I am without all of you amazing people who I honestly look up to in EVERYWAY. Thank you, thank you, thank you and keep hanging in there with all you do. I love you all and never forget it even though we are many many miles away right now.

Angela, i am soo soo happy to hear that you had such a fun fun birthday! i can't believe you are 16. Everyone grows up so fast, and i don't like it, it's weird. I myself wish I were a kid again and just oblivious to everything and so innocent and just get to run around and have fun and not worry about anything. And im glad dad's talk went well, doesn't surprise me though cause dad always does good. and im glad mother's day was fun!

Let's see...news for the week. Well i talked to you sunday so not much has happened since then. I was in липецк for monday and we left tuesday morning on the bus. It was about a 2 hour drive. I liked it cause you got to see some pretty country side views and the road was surrounded by trees on both sides and it reminded me a lot of the highways in SC. so that was kinda fun. Then when we got to воронеж we had district meeting. Sis corbett was not back yet so i spent the rest of that day and wed. with the senior couple the Lowry's. They are great. I got some good studying done but it is always weird because im not out with my companion meeting or tracting on days like that. But i did get to help sis. Lowry clean, cook, and make cookies. So that was lots of fun!!! Sis. corbett got back and now it is pday again and we have just been up to the usual activities and will get out tonight and do some work!! wohooo!

oh while i am thinking of it, dallin....today on the bus we heard that kesha girl sing her don't stop song. it totally reminded me of you and was way weird to hear it. When i hear stuff like that i don't feel like a missionary and it reminds me of home and it is weird. I have to remind myself that i am in Russia and not in a little bubble anymore. haha.

i was very sad to hear that uncle alvin is not feeling well again. It makes me worry. But please tell them that they are in my thoughts and prayers. And how is lacee doing? when you go to see her sunday please tell her i love her and that i am very proud of her for choosing to serve. Im excited that we both will be out at the same time!

well, this week i guess is just pretty much the same old same old. I was thinking how i think one of the hard things about being here is the fact that just in the few short weeks i have been here, my eyes have really been opened up to the pain and suffering of the people here. I don't like it. It makes me want to crawl into a little hole. It always just makes me want to cry and makes me soo sick to my stomach. The unhappy lives that these people lead here, whether it be because of their own choices or because of others choices, just really breaks my heart. And as missionaries we want so badly to somehow take that pain away from them, but a lot of the time they don't want to hear it. You walk down the street and ride on the buses and you see so many sad and lonely people, and if you look in their eyes you just know that they are searching for something. Searching for happiness. But like it has been said, they don't know where to find it, or if they do, they are too depressed and lead such lives that they feel they can't achieve that happiness. I feel so so blessed, and it is not fair to them. Especially since now my eyes have been more opened and i witness so many depressive lives. I want to help them, but it is hard to conceive how one quiet little girl from utah who at times finds it hard to do things for herself...can do anything for them. How can i convince them of what can make them happy? I guess it is just little by little. But you do wish that you could just take away all their sadness in just one big swipe. I continue to pray that somehow as missionaries we can make a difference, i guess even though we may not see it.

Well, i think i have run out of things to say. Oh, i was reading the january 2010 liahona the other day. I love the liahona!! and the ensign! they are both great. But read the jan. 2010 liahona. It is an amazing one for both young and old. I love the talk by elder holland "the best is yet to be". and I also like the talk called "in the Lord's way". they are both great. well, like I said the whole thing is great. read the whole thing, but those two were my favorites for now.

Again family, i love you, love you. You are in my prayers always. I'm glad everyone sounds to be doing pretty good. I hope this is the case. Keep doin what's right. Keep reading your scriptures and saying your prayers. And having family night and family prayer and scripture study. Keep going to church. Keep bein nice and following the commandments. Attend the temple regularly. Keep loving others. And just keep on keeping on. Live your life so that the Holy Ghost can be your constant guide. It is always hard in this every changing world and with all the distractions we have around to hear the constant guidance of the spirit. But just keep doing what's right and keep doing those regular things that invite the spirit, and I know you will be blessed by it. All my love to you!! Until next week!

Sister Brown

Sister Brown with President & Sister Woolley

Sister Brown in front of Red Square

Church in Moscow