FINALLY!!! A letter...dated 6/25 to 6/30

Family <3,
I know, I'm the worst. I have always been bad at writing letters...you know that.

Since I said goodbye to the recorder there has been a lot going on. On Tuesday (6/25) we had a sister's training meeting. It was a lot like that tune-up training we had about 2 weeks ago but it was just sisters...(what does that tell ya? Do we need that much extra help? Do we struggle that much? Ha ha). It was the same set up; meet @ 11:45 and had lunch (turkey wraps...such a sister lunch. The few elders that were there had to get take-out. That's how women-like it was), then my companion Sister B performed a special musical number. We had a training on "contacting" from the APs. I was happy that it was on contacting because I am super un-confident when it comes to this particular part of missionary work.
The APs are amazing at contacting...it's kind of disgusting...If I was contacted by them I would probably accept an invitation to be baptized right then on the spot...okay maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration BUT they are so good, it kills me.
Every time we have any sort of meeting with multiple missionaries, we always practice teach. Zone meeting, district meeting, specialized training...always. I always feel super silly doing it, but it works. So we practiced contacting and I went with Sister H and Sister L. I think I told you this already, but Sister L is BOMB at contacting. She is almost as good as the assistants. Anyway, I practiced with her and she told me I am not as bad as I think I am. She said I'm pretty good at it. That  made me feel good, but then I try to go contact a real person and I don't feel like I'm that great...maybe that is Heavenly Father keeping me humble!?!? After the training, President B talked with us. It was great. He is such an amazing guy. I know I say this all the time but honestly. I just wish he would have been my mission president the whole 18 months. His training was a little more casual. He asked us what kind of things we were dealing with in our areas and gave us ideas and advice on what to do. It was what I would imagine the Savior would do.
After the meeting was over, President came and pulled Sister B and me aside and asked us if we would come over to the Mission Home to clean. Of we said yes! We were excited to be invited to the "party".
On Wednesday we went over to see "Garden Lady". Garden Lady is a woman Sister B and Sister H contacted but they never got her name, so she had been on our board as "Garden Lady" which means every time it's my turn to pray, I have to pray for "Garden Lady" and I end up laughing. I think Heavenly Father giggles about it too. He has to, it's funny. Anyway, we stopped by her house and talked to her a little bit. We found out her name is Pat, so that was good. We shared a scripture and asked if she would be interested in learning more. She said, "No, but if I wasn't so into my church I would definitely be a Mormon". Uh...Ha. She went off on how wonderful Mormons are and how she would look into Mormonism if she didn't work for her church. We forgot to pray with her and ask if we could ever do any service for her, so we are going back to see what we can do.
Thursdays are district meeting. Sister B loves district meeting. She says they get her pumped and excited about the work. However, meetings like that make me feel a little discouraged. Sometimes being in the ward we are feels impossible. Later that day we were contacting and we ran into a lady named Jennifer. She told us that she was looking for a church to raise her children in and she believes a little bit of everything. She was very concerned about what a lot of churches believe as far as same sex marriage. She thinks that there is no way God would have made them gay if he wanted them to be straight. That would mean he made a mistake and God doesn't make mistakes. It was a very hard contact. What do you say? How do you answer these questions? Sister B is awesome. She just said something like, "We believe that marriage is between a man and a woman, however we don't pass judgement, or anything like that. We love them, just like God loves them." I thought that was a perfect answer. It was just hard because she threw out the argument that the world was over populated and all that fun stuff. We gave her a Book of Mormon and told her it was about Christ and when he visited the Americas. She said, "Huh? I've never heard about that. Did that happen?" We told her it did happen...cool huh! She took our number and said she would call if she had an questions. I doubt she will call but I do think she will read it. She was interested in the book. It was a pretty hard contact.
Friday was the day we went to the mission home. It was both Sister B and my first time in the home. It is beautiful! We'll probably never go there again. Everything we do is at the different stake centers and mission office, because there are so many missionaries. Sister B, myself, and Sister L were inside in charge of cleaning the silk plants...I could have died. Do you know how many leaves are on one silk plant? Do you realize how dusty they get? Well imagine that plus add in a couple silk trees and 100 plants times however many leaves, and whala...the 5 hours we were there, silk plants is all we did. If the cleanliness of those plants doesn't impress the new president, I don't know what would. While I was scrubbing a fern, I was talking to President B about my call and how after I knew he knew me I said, "Well crap, now I have to go...my mission president knows me..." After we finished the conversation (which I thought was going pretty good. I mean, we were all laughing...) he stood up and said, "Well Sister Brown, I think that is the first time anyone has ever said crap in the mission home. He then walked out. Uhhh...whoops. Of course that made me feel super stupid and like an awful missionary. Oh well, what are ya gonna do? Well I accidentally dropped the crap bomb a couple more time (I don't think the president heard those...) When we were getting ready to leave I accidentally said "freakin" and President said, "So now you've said crap and freakin, what are we going to do with you." He was laughing. I apologized, and he shook his head and he told me he just thought it was funny...it was embarrassing.
Friday evening we were contacting and we contacted a lady and I was dead set on getting an appointment with her (which I did). Then Sister B said, "I don't think she speaks English that well." I then realized she wasn't the best contact because she probably didn't even understand what I was saying...Ha ha! Sometimes I just think I shouldn't speak, but who knows, maybe she will feel the spirit and we can send the Spanish elders over to her. Live and learn, right? I laugh about it.
Saturday was SO hot! It was 98 degrees and I was feeling sorry for myself until I remembered that Kathy is in 108 degree weather and ya'll are suffering in 105 degrees...everyone here is miserable. They say that 98 degrees is about as hot as it gets, can rarely get hotter. The good thing is that it's hot for a few days and then the heat breaks and goes back down to the 80s or so...so I'm pretty happy! Remember how I didn't want to go hot or cold? :) The new mission president got here on Saturday but we won't meet him until Friday...I'm looking forward to that! We went over to the Anderson's on Saturday and got a referral! Yea!!! We are going to do a "Plan of Salvation" FHE with them at the Anderson's home on Sunday. I guess it's one of the Anderson's closest friends and they have 3 little kids. We asked them if they felt like they would ever be baptized and they said, "Oh yes, we can absolutely see that happening." We are really excited and I think the Anderson's are too.
After we left the Anderson's, we went to the Van Gundy's for dinner. The Van Gundy's are an older couple in the ward. They are both converts and they are super nice people. They made us taco salads with a rasberry drink that was to die for. It was kind of weird because we ate outside with our feet in a little plastic kiddie pool full of water...we weren't sure if it was allowed or not but I mean, YOLO!  We asked our district leader about it and he said, "If you knew nothing about the church and saw missionaries in that setting, would you think it was weird?" Hahahah...well yeah!
After we left the Van Gundy's, we had to race home and jump in the car (we were on bikes) so that we could make it to the Elder's baptism. Well...#1 I can't ride a bike very well, #2 My itty bitty legs can't peddle as fast as Sister B so I am always struggling to catch up, and #3 my chain fell off, so we didn't think we were going to make it but it was none of those things that made us miss it. We got there in time except we got lost in the dang building...so we missed the dunking by like 2 minutes, ugh!! Oh well, we only missed the most important part...
Sundays are always good, except this Sunday something awesome happened. The sister missionaries are in charge of greeting at the front door along with a Brother Ward and the elders man the back doors. Anyway, we were greeting people and this woman I didn't recognize (which is not unusual because I know < half the ward) walked through the doors but Bro. Ward didn't know her either, so he asked her who she was (in a very nice way...I was eavesdropping, sorry not sorry) and she said, "I've been going to an LDS church in Utah for the last month with friends. So when I got back to LB I wanted to find the ward I should go to, so I got on online and found this ward." Wait...what?!?! A golden investigator just walked into 9:00 am church by herself. You know that they are prepared when they up and come to church by themselves at 9:00 in the morning on a Sunday. No one does that, unless they are a member. It was awesome! She sat by us in Sacrament meeting and came to Gospel Principles. She loved it. She was commenting and participating. I just couldn't believe it was happening. There is no other way to put it except God has been preparing her. I know this church is true and I am so excite to start teaching her so she can know for herself the truthfulness of the Gospel. I can't wait to see the blessings that await her as she comes to accept this AMAZING message! Ahhh, I can't hardly stand it. We have an appointment with her on Wednesday. We are trying to find a member to come with us, so hopefully it works out!
Sunday we had an awesome dinner with the Jansen's --steak, salad, rice, steamed zucchini, and strawberries and whipped cream. I left the house so full I felt like Violet off of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The Jansen's used to be less active but they are active now. They are cool, I like them. Sunday was a good day!

I just LOVE YOU SO MUCH! I'll say goodbye now...until next time!
XOXO - Sister Brown

THE CHURCH IS TRUE!

The End