Sister Acacia Brown 9 February 2011

Hello!!!

How is everyone?! I love you and it is great to hear from you all as
always! Janae thank you so much for the email. I am praying for you
and hope that everything goes well and that you are able to head back
into the mission field soon. And what are you talking about?! i still
have 6 whole months left and got a lot of things that I can still do.
Its weird. everyone keeps saying, wow, you are basically done. and I
think oh give me a break!! I have realized that I have let a whole
year fly by and that I could do a lot lot more. So I am really excited
to be with sister Gorkavenko and we are going to work super hard.

This week has been another pretty normal one. I was with 2 mini mini
missionaries for a few days, and then sister gorkavenko got here. We
have had lots of fun together, but we are determined to work super
hard too. I am excited to be with her again. We continue to work with
our investigators. As of late we have not really found any new
investigators to teach, but we are working on it. We committed our
sweet little investigator to be baptized again and to set a date, but
she has a few concerns because her mother is worried about it. So we
are going to meet with her mother as soon as we can and see if we can
help calm some of here concerns. They are both still reading the book
of mormon, so we are very excited about that.

Yesterday me and sister gorkavenko had a fun time contacting. It was
snowy and cold but it was beautiful and we got the opportunity to talk
to some really great people. I really need to work on my contacting
skills, I feel like every time i talk that I am super duper awkward,
but thats ok. On the bus ride on our way home i sat by a woman and
just started talking to her and it was very fun, I just felt the
spirit super strong. I was not able to get her contact, but I felt so
good because I had no fears of talking to her and carrying on a
conversation with her. She was super sweet and even though I did not
get her contact I just felt that I had done something good and maybe
made a difference for her that day. I was thinking about how on my
mission I feel like have a been one of those missionaries that has
made slow progress, but I am happy to see that I have at least made
some and tried to overcome my weaknesses and fears. I thought wow, a
year ago i would have never just sat down on a bus and starting up a
good old conversation with some random person on the bus, let alone in
the Russian language. It is amazing the growing experiences the Lord
gives us on our missions, and I am so so very grateful that the Lord
has given me this opportunity. I am so very grateful for the
whisperings of the Holy Spirit, because that is why I am here today.
Its a great feeling to ponder and look back on those events.

Dad, you asked about the new area opening up. Yes, the city of Astana
in kazakhstan is opening up in just a few weeks for the next transfer.
And no, sadly I will probably never serve there. I would love to, but
president is having 4 elders open up the city right now. There won't
be sisters there until they get a really good kinda solid branch
there. But I am really excited for the elders that are going to serve
there. One of them is my zone leader now and he is like freaking out
about the whole think. It is pretty funny and cool. All the elders
that will be there are really awesome and this will be a really great
opportunity for them. how fun. It is like every young missionaries
dream here to open up the city of Astana!

lets see. I think that is about it for the week. I love you all and am
always praying for you. Thank you for your love and support. Have a
wonderful week and be good! Until next week!

Loves,
Your favorite Sister Brown