The Lord's Promises are Sure

Hello Everyone

I'm so grateful for eternal families and the Plan of Salvation. I taught a lot about the Plan of Salvation this week and how our Father in Heaven is a loving and merciful God who wants so much for us to be with him. I'm so grateful for that. 

I guess I'm just reminded that the most important thing in our lives is our relationships with other people. Those are the things we should cherish in life and be grateful for. Those are the things of most worth. I see Brother and Sister Dyck around relatively often and I always ask them to tell the Larsens I love them when they FaceTime with Soren.

Thanks for the Easter gifts! I haven't handed them out yet, but I will relatively soon. 

Sunday (Nedelja) was a good and hard day. I played the piano for Sacrament meeting again, then I was called on to give my talk, then Sestra Orchard and I were teaching district council, so it was busy, but good. We got to sing with Lindsey Walker at the devotional on Tuesday, so that was kind of fun. We sang Savior Redeemer of My Soul and we had Elder Craig Zwick speaking to us. It was awesome. We asked the choir director a few weeks ago if we might be able to sing at conference, but he said it only happens every couple years, so we won't be able to this year. Bummer, but that's okay!

 

I don't really know what has happened this week. It's all been kind of a blur.

Blessings:

I got to see Drew at the temple! It was the highlight of my entire time at the MTC. I woke up that morning (a week ago) feeling that I might see Drew that day, so I kept my eye out for him while I was in the temple, but didn't see him. When Sestra Orchard and I were trying to leave the temple, we got stuck talking to an older gentleman who proceeded to argue with me about the location of the Spokane temple :) It was very silly and strange, but I'm grateful that he kept us in there for a long time, because I walked out at the perfect time to run into my brother. It was a miracle from heaven. I don't know exactly why Heavenly Father gave me that awesome blessing to see and talk with Drew, but I know that Heavenly Father knew that grandpa would be leaving his life on Earth that week and maybe he was just helping me know that He is aware of and loves me. What a tender mercy to get to see a member of my family so that I didn't feel quite so sad at not being able to gather with the entire family for grandpa's funeral.

Sestra Orchard. She's been taking care of me and helping me with my emotional rollercoaster. I'm so grateful for her. 

My teachers. I got dad's DearElder letter at dinner on Monday and then had to go to class right afterward. I couldn't even sing our opening hymn in class without crying, so that wasn't good. Brat Brown took me into another room and just let me talk and cry. Then he told me that we could do whatever I wanted/needed during class. So we went outside and took a walk around the campus. It was raining a bit and then there was a miracle rainbow :) We sat on the rocks outside and read through 3 Nephi 17 (Brat Brown, Staresina Jensen, and I). I was really grateful for teachers who are in tune with the spirit and willing to serve and help me.  Never postpone a prompting from the spirit. I would love to teach here when I come home, but I fear that I may never know the language well enough for that.

Fun things:

Sestra Christenson's birthday was on Tuesday. We planned a surprise picnic lunch for her and we had collected a bunch of sodas and cinnamon rolls (from the giveaway shelf...), so that we could have a real party. I think she had an awesome day so that was awesome. I'll put some pictures of that on my drive. It was definitely a good way to take my mind off myself and focus on serving someone else. 

We're all going a little crazy. Like really crazy actually. I'll put some pictures of our weirdness on my drive as well. I can't think of any specific stories, but it feels like we've been here forever. 

Teaching:

Teaching is really tough for me, but this week went well. We've talked so much about teaching by the spirit and teaching people, not lessons. I prepared some things for TRC last night about trusting that the Lord's promises are sure, I felt like the spirit had directed me to prepare things that were just for the person I was teaching. We read through the story of Peter walking on the water towards our Savior, Jesus inviting him to come, beginning to sink into the water, and the Savior reaching out to pull him up. And we just discussed how it can be difficult to really trust in the Lord's promises, especially when times are hard, but it's the Lord's promises that enable us to stay on top of the water. We are enabled by Jesus Christ. 

I love you all and I'm grateful to be a missionary and to have the chance to represent Jesus Christ and to share his love with the world. I'm especially grateful at this time to know that because of Jesus Christ, we can be with our families forever. Mortal life is not the extent of our existence. I testify that there is much much more beyond our time on Earth. I'm grateful for a Heavenly Father who knows me and loves me and shows me his love each day. He knows and loves you too. In times of trial and struggle, let's turn toward Jesus Christ, not away. Let's trust that his promises are sure. Let's "overcome by faith" 

D&C 76:53. And who overcome by faith, and are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, which the Father sheds forth upon all those who are just and true.

A Blur of Becoming - Week 4 at the Missionary Training Center

Hello all! 

To be honest, I can't remember much of what happened this week. Each day just kind of blurs into the next, but it's been good! 

Oh Trev, I saw Chase Galmeister! I saw him the morning after I read your email that he was here! He seemed really happy and excited to be here. And I'm so proud of you, Trev. Anytime I meet someone who knows you (especially your boys at Helaman Halls), they tell me what an amazing friend, example, and support you have been to them. And I just nod along because that's what you've been for me as well. It made me tear up to listen to him talk about you. Love you!

Drew, I'm stoked for you to go to Cambodia this summer! That's crazy! And you ran into a friend from Velocity Global and took him up to Temple Square?? That's seriously awesome. You're such a good example of sharing the gospel through the way you live! 

Kyle and Kendra! Happy almost birthday! 26 right?? Wow, you guys sure are getting up there in age :) Hope you're still around by the time I get home! Jackson and Arianne, I hope you're doing well! I love you guys! It's too bad y'all aren't still in Provo or we could maintain our tradition of going to Red Robin for the twins' birthday. I'm still in Provo! I'd be down :) 

Zone and District News:

This week we had more than half of our zone leave the MTC. Our hall has felt seriously empty, but it's awesome because they're out in the world talking to people and inviting them to come to know their Savior! In order to foster unity within the zone, I participated in zone volleyball on Saturday before they all left. It probably wasn't actually a unity-building experience because they had contention over which team had to let Sestra Brown play with them (I'm definitely a burden on the volleyball court) :) It was fun! 

On Wednesdays we have a four hour study block, so we had a district meeting to help us get to know each other better. Each of us took a couple minutes to share why we're serving missions and it was really neat to hear from everyone. It helped me to think through and realize why I'm here. I want to share what Jesus Christ has done for each one of us! His sacrifice for us makes it possible for us to live with God and our families even after this life and to change our hearts to be more like him. Jesus Christ is our Savior! We can have peace and happiness even through our trials in life because of what He has done for us. 

Tuesday Devotional:

Sestra Linda K. Burton came to speak to us on tuesday evening. She and her husband talked to us about becoming. "When you return home from your mission and your nametag is removed, what's left of you is whatever you have become throughout the mission." Heavenly Father can see the potential in each of us. Not just his missionaries, but each one of us. And as we turn to him and to our Savior, they will help us to become what they know we can become. We watched the Mormon Message where Elder Christofferson talks about Elder Hugh B. Brown's experience with the currant bush. I love it because the gardner knows what the currant bush has the potential to become, but the bush has to undergo some hard times in order to become. We can thank our Father in Heaven for giving us opportunities to become more like him every day. 

Slovene, Slovenglish, and Croatian:

Well the language is still really tough and I'm struggling. I wish I had a picture of my case charts to send to you. It's the most ridiculous mish mash of different endings for words depending on how they're being used. We have SEVENTY TWO possible endings for each word in the language haha AHH. The entire Slovene language is cased. It's crazy. We did an English fast on Tuesday where we didn't allow ourselves to speak English. That was tough because Sestra Orchard and I speak different languages. Needless to say, our companionship study that day wasn't terribly effective. But we still had the spirit! 

Both of us have been frustrated at different times with the language, so it's good that we can help each other through it. 

You probably never thought you'd hear me say this, but I ate too much ice cream yesterday. I was so full after dinner. And I think that I might be getting slightly intolerant. Don't know for sure, but my tummy isn't too happy when I eat ice cream. Maybe it's because I never drink milk anymore. Who knows? Speaking of my tummy..I think I hurt myself from doing too much ab work. haha my brothers will laugh at this because they would never guess I would do that :) 

I love you all! I hope that you're happy because the gospel is happy!

Sestra Brown

Week Three in the Missionary Training Center - Hruska

Dobro jutro!

This week has been kind of a blur. It seems like P Day came really fast this time, doesn't it? Heavenly Father is on the ball with looking out for us here. 

And here's something neat I learned yesterday! The Hruska's Kolaches logo has a pear on it, right? Well..the word for pear in Slovene is hruska. Tada! Kolaches are Czech, so I'm sure it's the same word for them.

Big thanks to Nick Putnam for sending cookies via DearElder! That was so thoughtful and all the sisters in my district enjoyed them last week! Thank you so much!

Trevvy Trev, I met Wayde (your BYU police officer) in the MTC cafeteria! He was excited to hear about how you're doing and said he hopes you're well! 

In other news...

Language: 

It's coming very slowly. I just don't have enough vocabulary, so it's frustrating. But Brat Brown had us do an activity yesterday that really boosted my morale. We acted like we were meeting people on the street and they only had 3 minutes to chat. At first we did it in Slovene only and I felt like I couldn't say anything. Then he said that we should try Slovene first, but if we need an English word we could use it. And then I did way better! Even though I hardly used any English haha. It's hard to be guided by the spirit when we're stressed and I've felt stressed a lot, but I'm working on it. 

Lessons:

I had three lessons in a row that totally bombed :It has just been really tough. I don't feel like a good teacher and I don't feel like I do a good job of listening to the Holy Ghost. BUT yesterday I had a lesson that was just awesome. The Spirit was so strong. I taught about our need for Jesus Christ and his atonement. We read some in Alma 42 and then in 2 Nephi 9. I bore my testimony that Jesus Christ makes it possible for us to live with our Heavenly Father again and that Jesus Christ's atonement makes that possible for his mother as well. Loved it.

Sestra Orchard and I got to teach together for the first time! We taught Relief Society. It was awesome (and also difficult) to finally teach with a companion. I loved it. We had an awesome discussion about Enos in the Book of Mormon and how the process of repentance brings us closer to our Savior. 

I'm working on memorizing Ether 12:27 in Slovene this week and I'm definitely seeing my weakness. But Jesus Christ makes us strong! And if we turn our hearts to Him in faith and repentance, He will change us. Repentance is a beautiful gift that enables us to become more like Him. I testify that Jesus Christ lives and He is our Redeemer and through him we can become like our Father in Heaven and live with him again. He loves us! He loves you! And I love you! And I love the people of Slovenia!

 

Love,

Sestra Brown

Week 2 in the Missionary Training Center

Zdravo!

Thank you for the emails and updates! I love hearing from you guys (it feels nice to say the word 'guys' because we're not supposed to use it here).

 

Arianne and Jackson, you two are the worst at emailing me, but I knew that would be the case before I left haha :) Love you guys! Hope all is well!

Kendra and Oli, the package was seriously a life-saver! And the sisters in my district enjoyed the cookies a lot! I had two miracle packages within the last week. One from Kendra and one from Rick McCloskey. I know the Lord is very aware of me because they each came on a day when I was having a really hard time and feeling pretty lonely. Thank you for taking care of me!

So this week has been good! I think I'll write in categories again.

Basketball: 

I haven't even bought a ROC pass in two years, but I'm STOKED about the BYU GU game :)  YOu may have thought that I was going to say I've been playing basketball during my exercise time, but such is not the case haha. That would be bad for everyone involved. I think I'm getting stronger because last week I could do two three sets of 20 pushups and now I'm doing sets of 25! Still a far cry from 70, but I've still got seven weeks here, so maybe I can get there...

Language Study:

The language is killer. And I don't feel like I'm progressing very much. We had our first TRC experience last night where church members come in and you just have a 20 minute discussion about the gospel. It was great! I shared with Jack and Jake about faith and the power that it brings to our lives. I'll mention more on that in a bit. I have a long ways to go before I can even have a decent conversation in this language, so if anyone has any study tips for me, I would appreciate it. Speaking of languages, we got to host new missionaries yesterday! Which is funny because I still feel like a new missionary. But I helped a sister who is going to Australia speaking....MANDARIN! So I got to help her calm down and get her bearings and told her that she'll do great and love the language. And I told her that Drew loves it :) Then I had to drop her off in her classroom where her teacher wouldn't speak any English, so after all my hard work to calm her down, he got her all freaked out again. The new missionaries will do great though!

Meal times:

I need to learn to be more like Kyle. Sestra Orchard and I always get to meals on time, but somehow it takes us an AGE to get our food. Don't know how haha, but we'll try to sit at the table our zone sits at and there is never any space for us by the time we have our food. So we make new friends. And we must take forever to eat or something too because we're always the LAST ONES eating. But that gives me ample time to see all my friends who work in the MTC cafeteria! I see Andrew Stewart relatively often. I see Kaiden Cloward (son of a man I worked with over the summer). And I see Lara ... from Spanish Fork and she totally knows Cass! Cass, I told her to give you a big hug for me next time she sees you on campus!

Church:

Sestra Orchard and I were assigned to be Sacrament meeting greeters. They assigned us Sunday morning, so we figured we could go to sacrament twenty minutes early and do that. Logical, right? And then the sisters came in and asked if I would accompany the special musical number that the Polish Elders were singing. First off, I don't know how to accompany. I barely know how to play the piano. Second, I get serious stage fright when I'm playing in front of people. Third, I've never accompanied anything in my life. Fourth, same as first! Anyway, so after lunch Sestra Orchard and I went to sacrament early so I could practice and then we could greet. The Elders were in there preparing the sacrament. I practiced a bit and got my nerves down some and then we went to the doors to greet. The clock kept ticking and ticking and no one was showing up...finally, at three minutes til we decided that we must be in the wrong place although we had been positive it was the right room. So we scoured the building until we found our entire zone in a different room (looked exactly the same) with President Bradford at the pulpit starting the meeting :( Oops! So my nerves shot straight back up again and the practicing was all for naught :) But I think it went alright anyway. Now Sestra O. and I are sitting here laughing at the memory.

Random:

I had a neat little miracle this week. I wanted to have charity, right? I had just finished writing in my journal about how I needed to be motivated by charity. And when we ask Heavenly Father to bless us with things, He does it by giving us opportunities to work for those things. As soon as I had closed my journal, Sister McColm said that we should all do our hair for church the next day (we don't do our hair very often). And then Sister Christenson said that the only thing she knows how to do with her hair is two braids. So I offered to teach her how to curl her hair and she let me do it the next morning! I know that's kind of silly, but it actually meant a lot to me that Heavenly Father immediately gave me an opportunity to serve someone else. There's a picture of Sestra C. and myself at the temple on my google drive :) 

Faith brings Power:

Okay, I had a thought this morning while Sestra O. and I were in the temple. Let me tell you about this ridiculous cycle that I have OFTEN found myself doing in my life, especially the last four years while I've been in school: 

School is really tough and your life gets swamped with schoolwork and studying. You feel stressed about dating and trying to find the right person. You want to be involved in social things and make friends but you can hardly justify it because of school. Classes get so overwhelming that you feel like you're going to fail. You feel like it's all on you to make it through things. Am I the only one failing here? Everyone around me seems like they're doing great. 

And then you realize that you're going about everything the wrong way. You realize that the Lord can and will help you, but you feel that you've kind of been neglecting him. You haven't been studying your scriptures or saying sincere prayers. You haven't been looking for opportunities to serve other people or listening for the Spirit. You have a whole list of things that you know you should be doing, but you haven't been. So you start doing them. But there's just so much to do and it's hard to ever feel like you're doing enough. And school is still there weighing you down. And now you're stressed again because you don't feel like you're doing enough in order to receive the Lord's help.

So what's the problem here? Here's what I've realized and what we've been taught by Brother Wilcox in the talk His Grace is Sufficient: There is no quantifiable amount of how much we need to do in order to get the Lord's help. There is no "if I do X amount then the Lord will help with the rest." Here's how it actually works: If we turn our hearts to the Lord, He WILL help us. And as we turn our hearts to Him in faith, our desires will change and we will have greater desire to do the things that bring us closer to Him. We don't study our scriptures in order to prove to the Lord that we did it so now we're entitled to His help. We study our scriptures because we have faith in Jesus Christ and we want to be closer to Him. And the more we turn to Him and exercise faith in Him, the more our desires to come close to Him will grow and our will begins to align with His. He has already paid the full price and He asks us to turn to Him and come to know him. There is a verb in Slovene that means to come to know someone - spoznate. SPOZ NAH TAY. I love it.

And as we turn to the Lord and exercise our faith in Him, we can know with surety that the promises He has made will come to pass. Jesus Christ is quoted in Moroni 7:33. It says "If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." How amazing is that! Whatsoever is expedient in the Lord, we will have power to do through our faith in Him. So my scripture of the week is D&C 123:17. Turn to the Lord, do all things cheerfully, and then you will have peace in your heart because you have 'utmost assurance' that the Lord's promises to you are sure. Allow yourself to stand with utmost assurance in the Lord.

I love you all! And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of a rushed missionary who has three languages rushing through her head; wherefore, condemn not the things of Sestra Brown.

Love,

Sestra Brown :)