Another Wonderful Week

March 31, 2014

This week went really fast the first part, then really slow the second half.

Monday we went and played basketball with the Elders. It was super fun,and my team won! WHOOO!! (whoops... not supposed to keep score on missions) Then we came home, showered and took a nap! I was super tired! That evening we saw F. We planned to teach about eternal families with him and his wife, but she wasn´t there. We taught him about the Holy Ghost, because he still hasn´t received his answer that this is the right way and that the Book of Mormon is true. After him, we saw F. She is super cute. We taught the Book of Mormon and she said she would read it. At family home evening, it was our turn to teach again!! We taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but shared it from the point of view of God and Jesus Christ. It worked out really good and we all learned something new! 

An interesting building in our area.

Tuesday we saw the Russian family. Wow.. they are amazing. The daughter is 25 and was baptized 6 years ago in Russia. She lives with her mom and dad who aren´t members. We taught them about the Book of Mormon and even though we were speaking really REALLY simple English for K (the daughter) to translate. We asked them to be baptized and they said yes. And the dad said, ´´finally´´.  It was beautiful and such a spirit led lesson. I loved it so much. Then we had district meeting, that we had to do in like 30 minutes because we had to go to an eating cita. We ate with L (a less active) she was so sweet and loving. We talked to her about coming to church. She said there are a lot of reasons why she isn´t going, but we asked her to pray about getting the strength and the help to go. Then that evening, J (new Convert) came with us to two lessons. We taught Ja for the first time. She was a street contact with Hna. Nielsen and I. It was great to have J with us, he did such a good job. Ja is really nice and cute. She is from Bolivia and has a family here!! After we finished, J said, ´´where now?!´´ He loved every second of it. Then we saw G and taught her about agency. She liked it, but she wants to go little by little. After that lesson, J was so happy. He was SINGING. ´´obra misional.. guay guay guay guay guay´´ (missionay work, cool cool cool cool cool) It was so great! I love that guy! Then we taught English class then had noche de hogar. E stayed for noche de hogar again!!

Wednesday we saw S and talked about quitting smoking. He is doing so great!! 3 days with only 1 cigerette. Then we saw M. He wanted to know where his wife is and how she is doing. (she died recently) the only problem is, is that M is always drunk so he can never understand what we´re telling him. Later - we were looking for a family in the street where they said they lived, and we knocked a door and met M2. He is from Peru and he is really nice. We taught him a lesson and he said we could come back and teach him again!! Then we saw J at a member´s house. It was AWESOME!! C, who is pretty much a member, gave her testimony about joining the church. It was powerful and J liked it I think. Then we saw F. we taught her and her son the restoration. The son, A, loves the Book of Mormon. He loves what he reads and thinks it´s really interesting! Then we ate with R FINALLY. It´s been forever!! She fed us yummy chicken soup stuff. I loved it. She said she is going to invite someone for next time!!

Thursday we had weekly planning and it went pretty great again. I´m really starting to enjoy planning. We saw the R family and they fed us again. H, the son, told us he has been sharing the gospel a lot this week. He found a family and has invited them to church. It´s great! Then we saw F and she wanted us to help her return something to the store. It was awkward. She had tried to return it before I guess, but they wouldn´t let her. It was just a weird situation. Then we saw ER!! She is just my favorite. I love her so much, and I feel like I haven´t seen her in forever! We just talked to her and let her know that we were there for her. She´s having a hard time with things. Then we went to English class and Hna. Read stayed there with A and I went to a noche de hogar with a family and J. It was kind of a disaster. Poor J. I´ll tell more about it later.

Friday we had to pass the Russians off to the zone leaders ): so sad. We taught lesson one with them. It was pretty hard with four of us. Then after that we went to see F. He said he had fasted to find a job, he found a two-day job. I hope he can see and realize the blessings that have come from the Lord. Then we saw S. We taught him the law of chastity. He was SO embarrassed to talk about it. I asked him to explain what he understood about the law of chastity. He said, ´´no, it´s written right there´´. (referring to the pamphlet!) super funny. Then we went to see A. She had missed us so much last week. We didn´t get the chance to see her, and she was just so happy to see us. We shared a scripture and talked to her and R, her sister. Then we had correlation and then we helped K (the russian member) get to know some of the single adults. One of the girls in ward 1, named F, took really good care of her. She was so great, and speaks English perfectly so it was good.

Three of my four companions in the mission field.

Saturday we went to play soccer, F was supposed to come, but didn´t show up. It was a lot of fun playing, I was on a pretty good team, so I guess that made it better. After medio-dia there was a baptism. S came and watched. 

Sunday, E went to church. Yeah it was the other ward but she finally went!! And when we went to see her after, she was super happy and calm. It was great. Sunday afternoon we had a noche de hogar with F and his family and a member from our ward. It was good, a little long, but good. Then we finally were able to see J. She was doing really well. We haven´t seen her in about a month and I guess last night she was thinking about us and felt like she needed to read the Book of Mormon. I guess she isn´t going to move, so we need to pass her on to the SHE´s. I felt good about it though, because they will teach her really well. Then last night we ate crepes at E´s. They were pretty good, I wasn´t expecting them to have so much meat in them.

That was my week!! This week is a week of transfers, and I am STAYING in Alicante!! (: whoooo.. I´m so happy I don´t have to leave yet! (;

I love you so much! I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Hermana Sara Brown

A Baptism!!

March 24, 2014

Well, I’ve got some great news!! J was baptized!!! But I´ll tell ya a little bit about this week!

Monday we went down by the port and looked at the shops. We had a lot of fun taking pictures and enjoying the BEAUTIFUL sunny day!!

That night, we were going to follow up on some futures and then we got a call from the secretary that told us that Hna. Read was going to Málaga tomorrow!!!

We had to go print off her ticket and figure out something for me to do. She wasn´t going to get back until Thursday evening. I called the SHE´s and they said that I could be with them. After that, we went to go follow up on a future that the Zone Leaders gave us a while ago.. we knocked and this woman from Ecuador opened the door. Her name is F and she said that we could come in and talk with her. She has 3 boys and one of them is super interested in the gospel! The other two are a little younger! We taught a lesson about prayer and she said we could come back! It was great! (: Then we had family home evening. We taught the lesson again, and we watched the new Mormon Message about the Prodigal Son. 

Tuesday, Hna. Read left at 9:30 and the SHE´s came and picked me up. We went to their house and then I went with them to one lesson. It was weird because right in the middle of it, two girls came in and started talking to the guy that we were teaching. They were social workers because he is caring for his nephew. It was interesting, and I loved actually seeing it in real life. Then we had to go drop Hna. Nielsen off at the bus station, she wasn´t going to be in Alicante for the next two days either, they were doing intercambios. Hna. Johnson and I stayed and tried to figure out what we were going to do. Then Hna. Grant came and we went to the church.  Two members  went with me into my area. All of our plans failed ): poor girls had to walk a lot, but we did get to see F. We talked about the Word of Wisdom and he told me that he hadn´t had alcohol or coffee for a week!! It was great, especially to hear it coming from two new converts and from Columbia like him!!

After, we walked with E to English class. She is super funny. We taught English class with Hna. Johnson and Hna. Grant, then they had to go to an eating cita and I stayed with a member for family home evening. The lesson was about a boy dying so a bunch of people could be saved on a train then it talked about the Savior. E said she hated it, but I really think she liked it. Then we walked home with her.  I love her a lot.

Wednesday was Father´s Day here. This morning I took a BATH!! WHOOO it was the best thing ever!!! (: They have such hot water too! We went to see F this morning, Hna. Johnson said all her plans failed in her area so we could go to mine. The lesson went well, we committed him to keep the word of wisdom for the rest of his life, and then we taught the Law of Chastity. He said he can do that too!! After that lesson, we went to the bus station, and then went to find some futures. Then we went and ate some yummy baked veggies. Hna. Johnson made them for me. She´s just the best!

I love being able to work with Hna. Johnson!!

Then we went to go pick up HNA GUERRERO!! whoo I love that girl! Then we went and saw one of my less-actives and taught her about faith. Then we went to see one of Hna. Johnson´s members. She is super old, but loves music and missionary work. We sang her a hymn and then shared something with her. She made me sit next to her and then gave me a hugs and patted my back. She was really cute. Then we went to talk to their investigator. 

Thursday we tried to have a lesson in the morning, but nothing worked out. We bought a napolitana because it´s Hna Johnson and Nielsen´s YEAR MARK!! Crazy! Then we went and dropped Hna. Guerrero off and then headed to my area. We tried to stop by N’s, but she wasn´t there. Then we stopped by G’s, and her boyfriend, told us we could see her Sunday. Then we went to eat with the R’s. Then we went back to the bus station to get Hna. Nielsen and Read. Then Hna. Read and I came back to the house so she could eat, then went to teach J. We got stopped along the way by a man asking about our religion. I think we answered a lot of his ideas. Then we watched finding faith in Christ with J., he is all ready for his baptism for Saturday. After, we had English class then correlation.

Friday our bus left at 7 AM... so early. We had the conference in Murcia with 3 other zones! It was so fun! I´ll write more about it in a letter! (: I just love President and Hna. Deere so so so much!

The 'Old Huelva District' together one last time.

After the conference, we had to RUN to the bus. We got there, and all the seats were full. So Hna. Read, Johnson, Nielsen and I were stuck there for a few hours. I was so tired.

Guess who I saw at our Multi-Zone Conference??

Then we finally got on a bus at 7, then got into Alicante and went and taught E. She was having a really hard time with her family, but also said that they have all the tickets bought to move to the United States!! Crazy! 

Saturday we did our weekly planning then headed to the church for the baptism. Luckily our ward mission leader did it all for us. We were waiting for J, and he wasn´t there at 4:45 and the baptism started at 5. I called him panicking, and he said ´´Hola Hermana Brown, cómo estás?? I asked him if he was on his way and he asked.. for what?? Ohh I was freaking out, he thought he needed to be there at 5. But he got there and everything went FANTASTIC. Hna. Read, Johnson, Nielsen and I sang ‘Nearer my God to Thee’ in 3-part. It sounded way good. Two of our investigators came and it was just great! Then we went to see S and had a pretty great lesson with him.

Sunday was great too!! J was confirmed and S came to church. J is amazing. He knows everything and is such a good guy! After medio-dia we saw S in A´s house and taught the word of wisdom. It was AWESOME. We knew that S smoked, but he said that he wants to quit. He said he thinks God can help him! It was a great lesson. Then we went to see G, she didn´t answer the door. Then we tried N, she said she doesn´t want to talk to us anymore. Then we were on our way home, and we talked to these two men. We had a good talk and lesson with them.

So this week was pretty crazy!! But over-all... it was great! J was baptized and I can just imagine the joy his mom has to know that he is part of the church too!!

I love you so much!!

Love, 

Sara

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

March 17, 2014

Happy Saint Patrick´s Day!!

This week was great, we had a few things not work out in our favor, but patience is key - everything will work out!

Ultimos Dias (Last Days)

Monday we taught J (our investigator who is preparing for baptism). We taught him Word of Wisdom and Sabbath Day and things went FANTASTIC. He is super fantastic and has all the answers directly from the Book of Mormon. After that, we went to pick up N to go to family home evening. We taught it, and taught the Book of Mormon. It went well - and I love that N knows people in the church. 

The Beautiful Coast.

Hermana Read and I

Tuesday we taught A before district meeting to go over the baptismal questions. He was prepared to be baptized this weekend too. After district meeting, we ate kebap, and then taught some of our investigators. We saw F and E and taught them the word of wisdom. They both were wondering why in the world we would have this commandment - but we invited them to pray about Joseph Smith and find out for themselves. After that we saw A. It was our 2nd and our last lesson with him until he comes back from Peru. I like him a lot - I contact lots of people from South America. I try to talk to every one that comes into my path. After him, we saw G. She is really sweet, and said she would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. Then we taught J the Law of Chastity. He is divorced, and now knows the commandment. We had one of the JAS (jovenes adultos solteros) young single adults with us. She was great to bare testimony about chastity as a young woman. 

My Planner--What would I ever do without it?

Wednesday we saw some of our investigators and less actives.  Then we saw F and talked a little more about the Word of Wisdom. He said he would have a hard time with coffee and alcohol. Hna. Read asked him to go one week without drinking either of those things and see how he feels. He agreed, then we asked him if we could call him right when we drinks his first cup - and he agreed to that too. He said he would do his best to avoid those things. Then we were able to see E. After the message we shared, her sister invited us to eat dinner with them. She made us rice, and chicken. It was super good too!!! Her sister´s name is M and I think she is the funniest thing ever!

Thursday morning I called F before he had is his first cup of coffee. He was really tired-sounding over the phone. He told me he would just drink a ´´manzanilla´´ (like an infusion) instead of coffee. He is super great! Then after weekly-planning, we ate with the R’s and we had fish. Then they gave us fresh strawberries with cream (: YUMMY!!! That evening was a little rough, we didn´t see anyone until English class. After that class, we taught J with T, H and E. We taught the last lesson of tithing, then got his baptism clothes ready and the interview set up. He was super ready to get baptized. 

One of our investigators and his friend.

Friday was the day that A was supposed to have his interview. As we were waiting for him at the church, we called him and he told us he had to work for the weekend. So we had to extend the date for this next week.

Saturday morning, Javier was supposed to do his interview. BUT... he said he had to work. ): We played soccer Saturday morning, and F was supposed to come and bring his friend, but he only came to say hi. It was fun... I fell a lot - but everything is okay! That afternoon, we went out to a pueblo called Campello. The ride there is BEAUTIFUL. It was a view of the beautiful coastline the entire way! We ate with a less-active family there that are from Philippines. We did a lesson in English and boy was it weird! Their son was there so I was able to still talk in Spanish and some in English too. That night we saw S and taught him the plan of salvation. He accepted a baptismal date for the 12 of April. Then we found a new investigator named S from Ecuador. (yeah, I contacted her on the street) haha. She´s really cute!

Sunday was supposed to be the baptism of J and A, but they both got called in to work. F and S both came to church and stayed too. F brought one of his kids! He loved Primary! We learned a lot about the atonement today and I loved it! After church, we taught a guy that goes to the Evangelist church. His name is J and he is super nice. He also is very religious and knows a lot about the bible. He´s very nice, just like everyone from that church is. I really enjoy talking to them, they are very respectful and nice. Then we saw A. OHHH this is great news too! She came to church!! I´ve been here for 4 months and this is the first time she has come. She is the one who has an illness - but she came!! She is such an angel, I love her so much. We read with her, then she brought us food and juice! Then we went to see E. I accidently brought up that I will be leaving Alicante one day and she freaked out. She said she´s going to tape me to a chair, and the ´´man from Málaga´´ (president deere) she´s going to send him to the gillitine. (can´t spell, sorry)

Sure, things didn´t work out perfectly as planned, but we are not giving up. These people will be baptized and we´re going to do all that we can to help them. 

I´ve gained such a strong testimony of obedience - I know that when we try our hardest to do the Lord´s will, we are blessed. There are promises throughout the Book of Mormon that talk about that. Almost on every page, you can find a promise from Heavenly Father that talks about ´´keep my commandments, and you will prosper in the land.´´ I know obedience is key. It´s a way we show our love for our Savior and Father in Heaven.

Yo tengo un testimonio de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días. Sé que éste evangelio bendice a las familias, estoy muy agradecida que yo tengo un familia sellado en el templo. Sois ejemplos para mí. Os quiero!! 

Con Cariño!

Hermana Sara Brown

A Wonderful Week

March 10, 2014

What a wonderful week!! (: absolutely FULL of miracles! (:  I´ve absolutely loved being part of every second of it! 

Monday we went bowling with the two Alicante districts (minus the SHE´s and ZL´s because they were at concilio). It was a lot of fun, and I didn´t do too bad! 

Later, we went to family home evening - we ended up teaching again, but I was really happy for that! We taught the Restoration with the cups that make the gospel that Jesus Christ established. It was great, and everyone loved it. It´s so great to teach members the principles of the gospel in a clear simple way so that they can get ´´animo´´ (i don´t remember english words) to share it with their friends! After, we ate some yummy burgers (well at least I did) and then came home.

Tuesday we saw a (less-active) and she was not doing too great. She is really sad and depressed and said things that made me really sad to hear. We tried to help her the best that we could, but she needs to do her part too. After, we saw another less active and we FINALLY got in touch with him, and it made me so happy. He is really down- and can´t ´´encontrar su camino´´ (find his path) so I asked him... ´´Is Jesus Christ part of this path?´´ he replied, ´´He is the path´´. I then said... ´´well, you know where to start then. With a prayer.´´ He is super great, and I love him a lot - but he said he´s probably moving soon ): Everyone is leaving me!! As we were finishing the lesson with him, this man came up to us that we had met last week. He said, ´´he leído la sabiduría´´ (I have read the wisdom) I couldn´t really understand what he was saying, but he was talking about the Palabra de Sabiduría (word of wisdom) pamphlet that we gave to C last week. I asked him what he thought, and he said, ¨NO´´. It was weird, because A, was still there and we were trying to finish with him and this other man kept saying, ´´don´t you want to talk to me?´´ ´´you don´t love me´´ It was really weird and a little annoying. We walked with A after because I was a little scared.

We haven't had hot water for 3 weeks because our Butano was out.  We finally had time to get some, but had to get creative on how to get the tank across town.  

Luckily we found this cute little street as we were hauling our Gas Tank through the streets of Alicante.

After that,  we taught English class and had noche de hogar in the church.

Wednesday we tried to see a lot of people, then we ended up going through all of our back-ups and no one was home. We sat on a bench and I called a few people. As we were calling, E came up and invited us to eat. We went up to her house and ate really quickly then went up to the church to do intercambios!!! Hna. Nielsen came with me and Hna. Read went with Hna. Johnson. I tried to set up appts. with all the people that Hna. Nielsen would be happy to teach. We saw F and E, too!! It was a good time, we played with the kids and they gave us some yummy cake! We also saw G (a new investigator) and we had a great lesson with her. Then we saw A and A and then E. E freaked out when she saw Hna. Nielsen - she LOVES her, she wouldn´t stop hugging her. She told her that she is going to call Pres. Deere and tell him that she needs to stay with me! We had some great lessons with all of them. The best part of the day was finding a family. We were walking down the street, and Hna. Nielsen started talking to this older woman. She was really smiley and nice, but she didn´t hear or didn´t understand what we were saying. She had 2 daughters right near her and they talked to us. One of them is named N. She is 16 (but looked like 19) and she is really sweet. We told her what we were doing, and she asked if we could say a prayer! We did, and prayed for her mom and family because they are not very well. She has 5 brothers and sisters!!! She is from Andalucía and reminds me a lot of Hna. Cano. (: 

Thursday Hna. Nielsen wasn´t feeling too great, but we still went out and worked. We were walking to see J, but as we were walking I decided to call A. He answered FINALLY and we were able to see him right then. We turned around and went to meet him in a park. Hna. Read still hasn´t met him! He wanted to see us in a park, but it was closed. He took us to this museum thing. It was really awkward, and we didn´t know what to do. We finally were able to teach him a lesson about the sabbath day. He said, ´´cuando puedo bautizarme´´ ´´en el mar no?´´ (when can I be baptized, in the sea right??) We were both suprised and really excited! We told him we needed to get permission, but that we could do it next weekend! It was great! I´m really excited!!! That afternoon, we were supposed to have a lesson in the park with a new investigator named A. We got there a few minutes early and F and his kids were there. We went and said hi, and N grabbed my hand and told me to come play. I wanted to SO bad!! But we thought we saw our investigator, he smiled at us and waved - so we figured it was him. It wasn´t. He was really nice though, and we got a future out of it. As we were walking, these twin girls crossed the cross-walk at the same time as us. One of them said to Hna. Read, ´´hola hermana´´. We turned around and they waved, we awkwardly stopped in the cross-walk, and turned around running to them.´´ They were about 14 and their names are Emi and Saray. Hermana Read´s name is Amy and mine is Sara.. Pretty close. We got their numbers and found out they aren´t in our area ): Then we decided to knock the doors. We met this nice boy named J. He told us him mom would probably be interested. After that, we went to English class, then had correlation.

Chinese take out in Spain-Awesome!

Friday we had zone meeting. It was so great.. gave me so much animo!! The SHE´s talked first about hope and it was super great.. (maybe I´m a little biased, but I think we have the best SHE´s in the mission!) then the zone leaders talked about finding. After that, I was ready to talk to everyone. After a break in the conference, we had a meeting. We got in a circle and talked about obedience. I guess there has been a huge problem in the mission this past month and they just want to help any way they can. It was an answer to my prayers I think... I´ve been really stressed about how I can be the best trainer possible for Hna. Read. It was exactly what needed to happen along with inter-cambios with Hna. Johnson! After the meeting, we ate with L. She is the less-active who has a daughter on a mission. Her husband was there this time, and he was super nice. We had a great lesson with them and the food was perfect for Hna. Read too! Pasta with fish! That afternoon, we talked to a man named R - he has some interesting ideas. Then we stopped in to talk to A and A for a minute. A told me that she is really thinking of moving to Utah.  I definitely told her that she has a house if she comes! Then we saw F. It was such a great lesson and he had some awesome questions that we could answer with the Restoration. He really wants to do good things, and I really think he´s going to be baptized. We set a date for the 22nd of March. He´s super great!

Sunday was the best day ever. We walked to church with N. As I was sitting next to her in the chapel, I had never been happier. P  and S  came too! Then we went to the youth class with N , and then to Young Women’s, because she said that I could not leave her. She said, ´´don`t leave me, I´ll say I´m 18 if I need to.´´ haha.. .all the young women were so nice to her. I was so happy that she was so welcomed. Then we walked back with her. She said she really liked church, and that she´s coming with us to Family Home Evening on Monday.

So many miracles have happened this week and I am so grateful for them!!

Love,

Hermana Brown