BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!! and BEST GENERAL CONFERENCE EVER!

The beginning of a great birthday!

Awesome soccer ball from my great companion!!!

Birthday cake from the Elders and great cookies.

My birthday kebab that was sooooooo good!

I even got a birthday sunset-Beautiful!

General Conference with great members!

HOLA!!

Thank you so much for that letter mom! I loved it!! So conference was fantastic, I absolutely loved it! It was a lot different listening to it as a missionary. I think I took things a different way than I would have if I was at home. I can´t even tell you what my favorite talk was because they were all so amazing!  I¨ll just write a few things that stuck out in my head.

1) Saturday morning session: Carole M. Stephens´ talk. ´´EVERY FAMILY DESERVES THE PRIESTHOOD POWER IN THEIR HOME´´ I also loved how she said that everyone has access to it, even when they don´t have it in their home.

2) Edward Dube´s talk. ´´Give it your all´´ and when he quoted Elder Holland - ´´The past is to be led from, but not lived in´´ We should cherish every second we have, because we are not going to be getting it back!

3)Uchtdorf´s talk was amazing as always!! I loved when he said, ´´Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith´´ and also how he said that God is perfect, he just works through imperfect children. This talk is going to be so amazing for our investigators. And also the less-actives, they are having a hard time coming back to church because of what has happened with members- but if they can just understand that, that is what the church is for. ´´The church is designed to nourish the imperfect´´. I love it!

4) Sunday Morning - Richard J. Maynes ´´We must be the rock the river cannot wash away´´ I just love that!

5) I also loved the story Pres. Monson shared about his friend and the priesthood blessing.

6) Don´t forget to look up!

7) DECISIONS DETERMINE DESTINY

8) Eagerly Earnestly Exactly - KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS!!

It seemed to have a little pattern about these times being ´´perilous times´´. It was kind of a little scary to hear that the adversary will be working that much harder to bring us down, but our TESTIMONIES will be our shield in battle! It was pretty cool to think about, We have been carefully chosen to be here at the this time in the world. To fight for our God, and to bring as many as we can unto Salvation. It´s such an honor, but also a little intimidating that He expects so much out of us. But, if He trusts us - then we can do it. With God, all things are possible.

So P-day was great last week! The e-mails were great, I appreciated every one of them! Tuesday was my birthday, and it was a good one! My companion took really good care of me, and the elders in my district did too!! I woke up to Hma. Johnson singing happy birthday and asked me what I wanted for breakfast! She made me yummy french toast and then I opened presents! Thank you for what you got me! The flashlight really REALLY has come in handy already! Hma. Johnson is the best! She got me a soccer ball, spain flag, headband and a ring! We had district meeting, and I had to give the lesson! SCARY, it went fine though! Then we went into the kitchen and the elders had gotten me a cake and a candle to blow out! They are the best!! We ate KEBOB!! ohh mann it is so so so good! Afterwards, we got ready to proselite. We asked Sara to come with us, because we had 2 fixed cita´s... unfortunately, they failed us ): We went to Galicia´s for FHE and they had invited a bunch of members from the ward to come celebrate my birthday! It was really fun! Cristal, this really sweet and crazy lady gave me Castonets (things for flamenco dance) Alina (Galicia´s daughter) got me a necklace. Rosa Marie made me a headband! Probably because I wear them ALL the time, I get complements on them quite a lot! It was such a good birthday!

I´ve told you about Marta before! She is the cutest little girl! I´m going to try to send a video of her and I!

Thursday morning, I hit my head pretty hard! (I know, I know - ´´Be careful´´) It was a complete accident - but yeah later that day we traveled to Sevilla, where Hermana Rawle and I went to Malaga to finish our residency! Only 6 of us were there, and FORTUNATELY Abby was one of them!! WHOOO!!! We caught up and it was so nice to see her, but also super hard to say goodbye this time!

I´m so grateful to be a missionary in these latter days. Like President Monson said, (and a lot of his apostles echoed) Members AND Missionaries must work together!! I´m so grateful for the Atonement of my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love you all so much, and I´m so grateful that you are my family! (:

Love,

Hermana Sara Brown

Miracles are occuring right in front of me!! I just have to put the effort in talking to people, and they seem to unfold!

On our way to Zone Conference!

September 30, 2013

THANK YOU for everything Family and Friends!!!

It´s so good to hear from everybody, I spent the last 30 minutes getting all the e-mails ready to print!! It doesn´t feel like I´ve been out here for 2 months! It feels like I just got here. This last week was really weird! Yesterday, Hermana Johnson and I were talking about when we met this woman, and we thought it had been over a week... but we really just met her on Wednesday! I´ll tell you a little more about it in a minute! Oh crazy thing... Hermana Johnson´s cousins are Mckale and Alyssa from San Juan! I told her I have played like 4 sports with Mckale and she´s going to write home and ask if she knows who I am! It´s crazy how small the world is! To answer a few other questions you have, no my mission doesn´t use facebook.. at least not yet! I wonder if they´ll start soon.

Thank you for whatever you said to get people to e-mail me! (: It made my day! (: Oh you asked if I was Hermana Johnson´s first ´greenie´... She has been out six months, and I am her THIRD greenie.. I don´t think I talk about how great she is! She´s an incredible missionary, and I am so so so blessed to have her as my trainer. She´s seriously so patient with me and my spanish. We get along so great, and we´re great friends and will be for the rest of our lives! (: My district from the MTC had 5 girls including me, and 4 of us are in Málaga mission. 1 of the boys is in Málaga and he is in my Zone so I saw him this week!! I don´t think I will be able to visit the temple, it´s a bummer, but I´m glad I had the opportunity to go there 3 or 4 times!

 (:  Thank you for the birthday wishes!! I cannot believe I´m going to be 20!! It´s weird to think about! OH yeah.. something super important that I´ve forgotten to tell you!! I´m apologizing in advance because of the confusion!! We were only living without electricity the first night! We were without hot water for a week and we got a fridge the 2nd day.  I can´t remember which day it was, but we met a man from Germany. He was so funny - he knew English, Spanish, and German and he compared it to Gazpacho (look it up) He said ´´I have gazpacho in ze head´´

I´ll tell a little bit about the week!!

Last Monday -

We went to see Crisitani.. She´s a less-active that we care about so much! But she has to be the one to decide to put her faith in the Lord.

We had FHE with Galicia and Gabriel again... Gabriel likes to laugh at my Spanish of course!! But it was good!! Galicia shared a good lesson about Everyone being a child of God - no matter where they´re from or who they are!

Tuesday -

We received our first reference from Church Headquarters today. A woman in a pueblo called Valverde del Camino - ordered a Book of Mormon and a Faith movie. We called her and told her we would like to come bring it to her. She said, ´´I live so far away, I figured they would just mail it.´´ She seemed very nice and interested! We planned to teach her tomorrow. We also taught Samuel again today, and after the lesson we asked Matthew (his dad) If he was alright, he said he didn´t want to talk about it today.

Wednesday -

We went to the pueblo today and we didn´t really know how to get to her house. After wandering around, we called her and she said I saw you pass by, look for me, I´m out on my balcony. We went to see her and she told us about her family. She is from Los Andes, Chile - she has 2 children and a husband. She is actually a member and we didn´t know that... she´s the only member in her family. We asked her to give the opening prayer and before she started she began to tear up. She told us that she had a dream about SISTER missionaries coming to visit her. After her dream was when she decided she should start going back to church. That was when she ordered the BOM - she said ´´When i looked out my balcony and saw you two walking, it was just like it was in my dream´´  Oh i get cold chills just writing it! It was such a miracle, especially since WE (the Hermanas) were the ones who received the reference and not the elders. It was so amazing witnessing a miracle! We´re planning on visiting with her family this next Wednesday! We´re excited to meet them and hopefully they will become investigators!! We had to stop visiting Samuel for a while, because Matthew is not very happy with us. We are so sad about not being able to teach this boy who is wanting to be baptized. It´s quite sad ):

Thursday -

We have some AMAZING women in this ward. They have gone through so much - and yet still such strong women! I can´t believe the examples I have here. We talked with Rosa Marie today at lunch. She told us about things that have happened with her and I could not believe the strength she has! It´s incredible!

Friday -

We had zone conference today! It was great to see the missionaries again!! (: Abby isn´t in my zone /: but I should get to see her this next Friday!! President spoke to us about nothing being impossible with the Lord! He also put emphasis on finding more people to teach. This hit me hard, and this week - Hermana Johnson and I have been working so much harder to find and talk to people in the street!!

Saturday -

We played sports again and it was a lot of fun! Prince came and was so funny (like always) He is such a sweet guy!! We met with a nice couple tonight. Pepe and Manoli - they were old investigators and they haven´t been taught for years! We hope they will want to continue to learn!

Sunday -

I played the piano, and did awful ): I hope I can improve for sure... We met with an old investigator today - her name is Yaneth. She is such a sweetheart and really has a desire to come to church, but last time she came she heard gossip ): It´s so so so important for members to be good examples. I´ve never realized it before, but those investigators are watching ALL the time! They need to feel loved even if it means going out of your way to talk to them!

That was my week!! I love you all so much! I hope you are all doing great! Thanks again for the birthday wishes! I love you lots!! (;

Love,

Hermana Brown