Ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led

Dobro Jutro!

I think this may have been the strangest week I have yet experienced in the mission field. So, we're trying to flood Slovenia with The Book of Mormon, right? So I've been contacting people on the streets and introducing them to the Book of Mormon. On Tuesday we met a man on the street. He began talking to us in English when he learned that we were from America. Super nice of him. He shared his testimony of Jesus Christ and he was super excited to talk to us. It was awesome! So naturally, I wanted to return the favor by sharing with him something that has changed and blessed my life! Center Stage: The Book of Mormon. We were speaking in English, so I had much more energy and expression in my voice than I typically do in Slovene and I was really excited to share The Book of Mormon with him. We ended up meeting with him on Saturday and he actually came to church yesterday which is awesome. We handed him off the Elders to teach.

So that happened. Also, I gave my first talk in Slovene yesterday and I think it was the most difficult thing I have ever done. 

We had a fantastic lesson this week with a friend who lives outside of Celje who was really wanting to know how to find lasting peace and happiness in life, so we're really excited to meet again! The gospel of Jesus Christ brings lasting peace and happiness into our lives! Because of Jesus Christ, we can be changed each day and can become more like him. We can become the kind of people who our Heavenly Father wants us to become. The purpose of our lives is that we are preparing to return to our heavenly home with our Father in Heaven. That brings me lasting peace. The purpose of the Book of Mormon is to teach us how to find that lasting peace in this life and eternal life in the life to come. And Jesus Christ is at the center of it all! 

"And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you,  if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led." 1 Nephi 17: 13

This week was tough for me. I get knocked down a lot of times and sometimes I really didn't want to get back up again and I really wondered why I'm here. But this scripture has really helped me. The Lord promises that he will be our light and that as we keep his commandments, we can trust that he is guiding us and leading us towards our promised land. We may not always recognize that we are being led, but I truly believe that when we walk in faith, choosing the right, and following Jesus Christ, we CAN TRUST that we are being led by Jesus Christ in the way that he would have us go. Press forward with steadfastness in faith and trust in the promises of the Lord! 

I love you all! I'm grateful for the strength that we can receive in our lives through Jesus Christ. I believe that he can and will buoy us up and strengthen us through all things if we will turn to him. 

Love,

Sestra Brown

Dober Dan!

Dober dan!

Or as people tend to say here "dan." No "dober" and no exclamation point. And people give me the strangest looks when I say it with enthusiasm. They're either thinking, "Do I know that girl? Oh yeah, I think I know her...take a closer look at her face...glance down at the nametag..Oh no, I definitely don't know her. Look away so she doesn't try to talk to me. Oh shoot! Too late. She's talking. And what is she trying to say? That is definitely not Slovene." :) Or they're thinking "Why is she smiling?  No reason to smile like that right now." People are great here! They just think we're a little funny when we go around saying hello to everyone with enthusiasm in our voices. Why not be happy? Thank you to my family for some great advice yesterday about choosing to be happy! It's a choice we have every day and God definitely wants us to be happy. Satan doesn't, but God does. Follow the voice that has your best interest at heart.

Happy Mother's Day to all the women out there! One thing that I am so grateful for is to know that we are all a part of God's eternal family, that we are his children and he loves us. Whether we have children of our own or not, we can each turn outward and strive to love and serve God's children around us. We make the world a much better place as we try to lift one another rather than drag each other down.

Well, I survived my first exchange! And it was a blast. An exchange is where we switch companions for a few days. Sister Higley came here to Celje to work with me and we had a great time despite the fact that we have less than two months in Slovenia between the two of us. We definitely had to trust in the Lord that He would guide us, trust in and pray for the Gift of Tongues that we could understand and help people, and just laugh at ourselves when we didn't know what was going on. Sister Higley is a stellar missionary! We saw miracles together here in Celje. 

Racing With Snails in Celje

I went to Ljubljana twice this week. On Wednesday, we had zone conference and on Sunday, we had district conference with all the members of the church here in Slovenia. The theme of both meetings was The Book of Mormon and the blessings that it brings into our lives. I love The Book of Mormon! The Book of Mormon teaches us how we can gain peace through our lives and I have definitely seen that in my life. When I read and study The Book of Mormon, I feel my Heavenly Father's love for me. I am reminded that I am his daughter and that I am important to him. I'm reminded of my purpose here on Earth. God has a purpose for each of us - He wants us to return to live with him and with our families after life on Earth. God wants us to come home to him and The Book of Mormon teaches us how. 

The Book of Mormon is evidence of God's love for his children and his love for you. If you don't have one, ask my mom! She'll help you find one! 

Love 

Sestra Stephanie Brown

Week 3 in Celje - You are My Hands

Hi mom and dad and everyone!

Congratulations to Sam on his mission call! That is so neat. And I'm stoked to hear about Alice! Where is Brielle headed?

I'm learning that the real goal of a mission (and of life in general) is to have your heart changed. We can change our actions all we want, but the real goal is to have our hearts changed through Jesus Christ. It's a lifelong pursuit and I'm just experiencing little bits of it here. 

This week Sestra Kanell and I are trying to balance the sadness and frustration we feel when people that we love choose to walk away from something that we know will bring them greater joy and peace than anything else with having positive and hopeful attitudes as we go about this work. I'm trying to just have joy in Jesus Christ and not let other people's agency and choices bring me down. It's hard!

We had a miracle along the river this week. We had one of our appointments fall through, so we went contacting along the river. We began talking with someone who went on to tell us that they had sat on that bench so many times and would always see the missionaries and always wanted to talk to them, but the missionaries had merely said hello. Someone had been WANTING to talk with us! We shared about God's plan for his children, that God loves us and that we matter to him. That's true for every single one of us. It was so neat to see how our Heavenly Father will guide and direct each of us to be his hands in serving one another. He really wants to bless us. He really wants to comfort us. He really wants to help us to feel his love. And if we listen to the spirit - feelings and thoughts in our minds and hearts which lead us to do good - Heavenly Father will use each of us to lift those around us. You are my hands.

I believe in a God who works miracles! I see miracles every day here and I'm just now realizing that I had them every day of my life before the mission as well. I just didn't open my eyes to see them. Our Heavenly Father loves us so much and I know that he wants to bless us. Choose to have a grateful heart and to see the miracles that God works in your life. Choose to recognize God's love for you. 

Great idea about Find your Family classes, mom! I actually had a similar idea. There's only one computer in the church, so that doesn't really work for a group of people. What we're trying to figure out is whether or not we could reserve the computer room in the library for an hour a week to have a family history class! I’m crossing my fingers that the library will allow it.

Please pray for those we find that will be able to recognize that The Book of Mormon is the word of God. That it is evidence that God loves his children.

We are really working to find more people to teach.

Please pray that I will have the Gift of Tongues and that I will begin to understand more of what people are saying and that I will have courage to speak. 

Sister Higley is coming from Ljubljana and she's spent her entire mission in Croatia so far, so she speaks about as much Slovene as I do, but I still believe that the Lord can and will work miracles.

We just learned that we have district conference, so we'll be in Ljubljana. We'll be there a LOT this week actually. Wednesday is zone conference in Ljubljana. then we're going on exchanges, so S. Kanell will be in Ljubljana for a few days. Then we have district (district of Slovenia, not mission district) in Ljubljana. 

I love you both! 

Sestra Brown

Sestra Brown in Celje - Week 2

Let's see if I can tell you a little about this week. If I can even remember anything that has happened.... 

Funny things:

Well they have random holidays here, right? Well when that happens in America, you know that most places are still open. You can count on Walmart any day anytime. Well...not so here in Slovenia :) we really need groceries, but we basically checked every single grocery store in the city and nothing is open hah. Too bad yesterday wasn't fast Sunday - we could have just had a three day fast :)

On Thursday it was just dumping rain. Dumping. And we were walking down s main street on our way to some blocks where we were going to tract. A semi truck drove past and gave us a nice shower :) it was good because I don't think I'd actually rinsed all the soap from my hair that morning! 

We tried to make pizza on Thursday and totally failed. Like we were literally scraping the pizza off the pan with a knife and spatula haha. Not sure how we turned it into such a mess, but we did. So we had pizza mush for dinner :)

Satan really doesn't want us to be Preach My Gospel missionaries! We were studying and I spilled my drink all over not one, but both my copies of PMG (Slovene and English). So that was kind of sad, but I blow dried them and now they're fine.  

This is the Work of the Lord:

We haven't taught a whole ton, but we did teach a couple times this week. we had a wonderful lesson someone whose life is really tough right now. The spirit was so strong. We shared Mosiah 24:15 and testified of Jesus Christ and how he strengthens us when we turn to him. He can strengthen us through all things we experience.

We had branch conference yesterday and I really feel a need to focus on the temple here. We only really have access to one corner in the church, but I want to start teaching a family history class. We're going to see if we could do that in the library, but I don't know if that will be allowed or not. Thanks for what you shared, mom. Families are meant to be eternal and they can be! That is the beautiful and happy news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are eternal beings! We lived before we came to earth and we will live again after our lives here! I'm so grateful to know that Jesus Christ lives. He does.

I’m so grateful for the promises that the Lord has made to me and to all of us in the scriptures. This week. Am trying to focus on and trust more in these promises. I particularly love the scripture in Moroni that says "fear not what man can do for perfect love casteth out all fear." Or something along those lines. I want to choose to trust in God rather than fear man. And I want to choose to see people through God's eyes and to love them as he does. God loves his children (us). He loves you. I testify that he really truly does. I feel his love for complete strangers on the street each day and that's why I'm here. God loves his children and he wants us to know him. 

Sestra Brown

I heard that Sestra Brown played the piano while her companion played the violin and the Elders in their Branch sang a musical number.  Wish I could have been there.