It is great to hear from you as always. I love you! and yes, joe and noelle i wanted to wish you a happy birthday next wed! that is so crazy! yall will be 7! wow, everyone is just growing up so fast. Have fun and don't eat to much cake! Oh and Gma, yes i meant to tell you last week that i did get your little package and that little book. Thank you! Wow, i can't believe that school is starting up again for the kids. Fun stuff!
So we are surviving the hottest summer in Russia in 130 years is what i heard. Kinda crazy! And on average here in voronezh the highs are 20 degrees above normal! 20! The days always usually get above the 100's. I am always so nasty and sweaty it is just crazy, but if i think about it too much then it kinda makes me want to cry and miss the nice conveniences of an air conditioned place. Oh well, soon enough im sure the heat will calm down, and the cold will start coming in. I also heard that this winter is supposed to be really cold and a really bad one. Yea!!! I think the fires are calming down, but we don't watch the news or anything so im not really sure. But we don't really seem to smell the smoke anymore (or maybe were are just used to it!) I think if people would just stop smoking around hear a lot of the fires would not happen. Me and my companion were walking around street contacting yesterday evening and someone had just finishing smoking a cigarette and had thrown it in a little brush, and it was already starting a little tiny fire right there in the middle of the city. Sometimes i am just like, Come on people!!! Don't you see what you are doing!!!!! So the humanitarian couple here are working on getting stuff put together for us to do some really awesome service for all the fires and stuff. I was really excited about it and it all sounded like a great idea and we thought that it was going to go all through, but the last thing i heard from sis. Lowry was that that organization here in Russia is not letting us help. I think the Lowry's are looking for some other ins, so we will see. But I was quite disappointed when i heard that. You have fires destroying your city and some people offer to help with their time and money and you don't let them. Cool, Just cool!! So dad, congrats on getting your license. I continue to pray for you and think about you and hope everything is going well and everything works out well with your jobs. I hope you are enjoying it. Oh and you also talked about writing my experiences in my journal. I remember before i left on my mission i heard people talk about how at times it was hard and they didn't write in their journal a ton on their mission, and thought "what! ok i am going to be so good and write in my journal everyday! How can i not?!" And here i find myself on my mission not really accomplishing my goal. In the mtc i was very good about it, but there i didn't really have much to write about investigators or anything like that. And i try really hard here but somehow once we get home and get our planning done, that 30 min. to get ready for bed just flies by, and there went my journal writing opportunity. But i do probably get to write in my journal at least once a week. But the hard thing is that on a mission so much stuff goes on in just one day that by the time i write in my journal i forget what i wanted to say and i forget what happened...the days just seem to blend together. But yes, I do want to have those experiences in my journal, so i am working on it.
The work continues to move along with our investigators. The contacting has been more difficult with the heat and things. Nobody seems to want to be outside, and if they are they don't want to listen. But, the work still moves along. Slowly but surely. It was kinda funny because we had training the other week with president and they have some new videos of "the district". It is some mission training stuff. And the mission is in California. And we just watched it and enjoyed it, but all had to laugh too because of the amazing differences between that mission and ours. It is pretty crazy. But even though the work gets really difficult here at times, im still very excited to be here. And i know the Lord would not have the missionaries here in this mission anywhere else at this time.
So the other night before bed when me and my companion where both saying our prayers, i thought of something that i never really thought of before. We were both praying at the same time, which meant that Heavenly Father was listening to us both. At the same time. And He was hearing her prayer in Russian, and mine in English. And when i really thought about it i was just like wow, how does he do that! I don't know. But i know that God hears our prayers. Not only was He hearing me and my companions prayer at the same time in russian and english, but He was listening to millions of prayers around the world, in hundreds of languages all at that same time. It is so hard for my weak little human mind to comprehend how it is all possible. But i have a testimony that Heavenly Father hears our prayers. And i know that He answers our sincere prayers, but always in His own way and in His own time. We just need to be still and pay attention to those promptings of the spirit that He ALWAYS sends our way. Out of many many things that i have learned, that is one thing that i have learned so far on my mission. That God hears our prayers and He wants us to pray to Him. Prayer is a wonderful gift that we have been given, and the peace that comes through prayer is a gift like no other.
Well family. That is about it for this week. I love you all and never forget it. It sounds like everyone is doing pretty well and for that i am very happy. Have a wonderful week and until next!
All my love,
Sister Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment