Hello!!
wow! thank you thank you for all the wonderful and fun pictures!!! I very much enjoyed them! I am glad you all had fun and got back safely. And mom, I am glad that everything turned out with the taxes and things. Those really sound like fun.
Lets see. Looking back at this week it has been pretty eventful. It has had its ups, and its downs. First of all, Friday we set a baptismal date with Ipara!!! She will be baptized on the 14th of May. We are so happy for her!!! And my companion is just an amazing missionary. She relates so well with the investigators and members, and she is an amazing teacher. I am learning more from her than I am teaching her. Saturday President Woolley called me and told me some news. Who knows, things in this mission change quite often, so maybe it won't really end up like this. But he was telling me that there were some problems with how my russian visa and kazak visa line up or something. And that my kazak visa ends in the middle of May, and that I will go to russia and get a new kazak visa, and he said that I will stay in almaty for the rest of my mission!!! I was so shocked! I never expected voronezh to be my first and last city in russia! crazy right? And he said also that if that is what we will do, that i will stay here till the end, and then i won't have a visa to get back to russia. And, so i won't be on my last dinner and meeting with all the elders and sisters going home with me in moscow. sad right? He said I would just fly home by myself straight from almaty to america. And he said that he and sister woolley would try to get a tourist visa or something to come down to almaty and say goodbye before i head off. So that is the news now, but honestly, it changes ALL the time. So i was super shocked about it, but I guess Im not getting too set on it. You don't know here until like a week before! I love Russia!!!! i miss it!
After we have split our investigators with the other sisters, we have spent a lot of time contacting, and have had a lot of difficulty finding people that want to meet with us. we have received contacts, but they all give us no shows or say they don't or can't meet. And yesterday, after another day of calling and calling and trying to find out meetings, and getting absolutely nothing, I was completely down on myself. I sat there and wondered, what have I done wrong. Why every time i become the senior missionary, our statistics go super down and it is just very hard to find people to teach. I was very excited about the baptismal date with Ipara, but at the same time, I wanted to have other investigators also, and other people to teach to keep our teaching pool going. And I just got super down, didn't want to do anything, didn't understand what to do because i was already trying to do all that I can. And so I talked to my companion for a little bit, she gave me a good little psychology session talk, and then we headed back outside again to go contacting. I didn't want to, but as we started talking to people my mood got better. And just as we were walking near the branch building, I saw a young woman, who looked happy and sweet, and we went to talk to her. she started talking to us in english, asking us if we knew english. She started getting interested too in what we were doing there, and she was interested in learning more about our church. She converted to muslim religion not long ago, but she still is way open to learning about other religions. We asked her if she had time at that moment to meet with us and learn more, and she was like "yea! of course!" And so we went to the branch building and taught her the first lesson. She prayed at the end of the lesson. She took the Book of Mormon and wants to read and pray about it. She took the Liahona's to read. She is coming to another baptism and easter activity we have on saturday. She is coming to church on Sunday. And, we have another lesson with her on Monday. Can you believe that?!!!! The entire time we were teaching her, I just looked at her and thought to myself, "There I was early today, complaining about how hard it is for us right now. Asking why it can't always be easy to teach the gospel, and I wanted to give up. I just felt, when, when will we see some progress. We are trying so hard!!! And then, just like that, we experienced this amazing amazing amazing miracle!!
I was shocked and so grateful, and just wanted to cry. I expressed thanks to our Heavenly Father the rest of the night. It was amazing! He just watches over us. He sees our different struggles, and He truly blesses us. Usually it is not always as quickly as this miracle was we witnessed yesterday, but the blessings and the miracles come. We just need the faith and the patience. God never leaves us stranded : )
So on to your questions, yea dad, the duck meat was pretty greasy, but it was good, probably like chicken or something. And I hope everything is ok with all the rain and water and that flooding does not happen. Everyone here keeps telling us about tornadoes and floods in America and how they watch tv and just hear that it is "horrible" over there. So what's up over there? Ok, so i forgot to tell you that my companion is from the Newbury Park Stake there in California. That is where Jenelle and David are from, right? She said she did not know them though. She is from Agoura Hills. How close is that to you, Jenelle?
Well, that is probably about it for this week. I think i wanted to say something else, but i forgot, and I didn't write it down. darn! Oh well. I love you! Never forget it! Keep up the good work and do what is right! Be safe! I love you! Have a wonderful week! Until next week!
All my love!
Sister Brown, the one and only
PS. Oh my gosh! I forgot to tell you happy easter! so..... Happy Easter!!! I hope you have a great one, and let us all remember the real reason we celebrate Easter. I am so grateful to my Savior and His atonement, and that through Him all is made possible. Never forget how much our Heavenly Father and Savior love you!!! Have a wonderful Holiday!
Loves! sis brown
7 years ago
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