"We were able to share some really simple truths"

9-7-2011

Familia,

Another pretty normal week. Except that the mailbox has been painfully empty. Hopefully that will change soon.
Only a couple of exciting things happened this week. One of which included a surprise lesson with a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses. A couple of weeks ago we contacted a woman who told us we could come back at a specific time and day. So we came back, and she said she was sorry, she'd forgotten and was busy, but could we please come back in 20 minutes. So we came back, and sat down and started the basic getting to know her, her name is Isabel and she's of course Catholic. Within a couple of minutes there was a knock on the door. Isabel told us, "Oh, its a lady who comes and gives me classes about the Bible! She's a Jehovah's Witness!" Hermana Summers and I gave each other the look like, "oh great. . . " But, I wasn't too worried, we'd be fine. So this woman comes in and introduces her self and sits down, she seems nice, not to confrontational which is good. THEN there's a second knock on the door. And a older gentleman comes in, also a Jehovah's Witness. He was quite forceful. Sat down by me and said, "What do you use to teach?" Of course he knew exactly who we were, so we responded by telling him we teach out of the Bible, and another book, The Book of Mormon. He asked, "Where does this book come from?" I told him what it was and that it is the writings of ancient prophets. He says, "Well, the Bible comes directly from God." At this point I was a little frustrated because I knew he just wanted to argue. I responded rather bluntly, "Yes. THROUGH PROPHETS." He kind of muttered in agreement and then turned on Isabel. "Isabel, what is the purpose of having these people here?" Isabel has only known us for like 5 minutes, we haven't even gotten into anything religious yet, but luckily she is able to answer that she wants to learn about other religions and that we are all there to talk about God. This man then launches into the most forceful lesson I have ever seen. He was talking to Isabel like she was an idiot and ultimately I felt pretty uncomfortable. Its not that he was saying anything incorrect, only that he was saying it in a manner that was not conducive to the spirit at all. He was also going a mile a minute so as not to allow us the opportunity to say anything. But, we stuck it out until they had to go, and were able to give Isabel a nice lesson, and tell her that she doesn't have to what any of us has to say as truth, without asking God what the truth is. It was an interesting interesting experience, to say the least.

This same day, we decided to stop by a woman, Rocio, who we had found my first week here, who we taught one lesson and told us to come back, but everytime we came back she told us she was busy and to try again later. We had kind of given up for a little while, but decided to stop by her again. She let us in, and when we asked her how she'd been, she told us, "Bad. My brother just died." Her 24 year old brother died suddenly in his sleep from sleep apnea apparently about a month ago, right around the time we were trying to find her. She really just wanted to talk about it, and it was good. We were able to share some really simple truths about what we know about the eternal nature of the family. But what really seemed to hit her, was that Heavenly Father and Christ know what she's going through and can help and comfort her, if she asks in prayer. She seemed to really like the idea that she can pray, talk, directly to God, and that she didn't need to pray to a saint. We taught her how to pray, and she really made sure she knew the steps. It was an awesome awesome lesson. She thanked us for listening to her, and set an appointment for us to come back. I hope everything works out for her.

Well, I think thats all I've got for you this week. I love hearing from you, thanks for the emails. And thanks, Mom, for sharing your experience with me about your friend from the accounting office.

LOVE LOVE LOVE you all,
Shaelyn

Made it through transfers still in Rockford

8-31-2011

Familia,

Well. Made it through transfers still in Rockford. Hermana Summers and I are the only companionship in our district that didn't get changed, so it will be interesting to see how things go.
Well, bad news for those of you that have been following the Maria y Luis saga. Last night they dropped us hardcore. Last Thursday we had a difficult lesson with them, Luis basically just said he didn't believe that the Book of Mormon could be true. We had a couple of members with us and they were a really big help. I think they really got through to Maria, and she agreed to read, which she had been refusing to do before because she was scared. Well, she read. And she prayed. and didn't receive an answer. She said she doesn't like our book. But then went on to say that it says a lot of the same things as the Bible, its just easier to understand, and it could be true, she just already has the Bible and doesn't need anything else. I was pretty sad, because I really do love them. Apparently I just looked super mad though, because Maria told me to stop giving her dirty looks. When I explained I was just sad, and why, she seemed to feel really bad. But its true. I was heartbroken. Sister Summers told me afterward that she has only felt that bad after being dropped once. She said it feels like being dumped. She was trying to figure out what she had done wrong, but I know that we did everything we could for them and we did it in the right way. I don't know why they didn't get an answer. And its really frustrating. But hopefully we planted a seed, that someday someone else will be able to come along and harvest. They did ask if they could keep the Book of Mormon in case something in the Bible was confusing, so they could see if they Book of Mormon could explain it better. Geez.
We have an appointment with Sergio this week. So hopefully he doesn't flake on us again, and we can actually get his baptism underway.
I hope everything is going well there. Sounds like school is well underway.

I really enjoyed the letter I got from you this last week, Mom. I highlighted all my favorite parts.
As for how long they'll keep me here in Rockford. I have nooo idea. I could either be moved out next transfer so that someone with more experience will be here when Hermana Summers goes home, to take over. Or I could stay here until after she goes home in November. I think its more likely that they'll move me out, so that I'm not the senior companion that fast. I also here they don't generally keep missionaries in their first area for that long. But who knows.

About the little girl wearing my name tag in my pictures. Yep, that little girl is in the branch. Her name is Michelle and she is 7, and super adorable. She is also really smart, speaks really good Spanish and English. The other day we went over to their house to help with Family Home Evening. She told me if I had any questions about how to say something in Spanish she would help. So, every time I tried to say ANYTHING, before I could even get two words out, Michelle would start in, "Hermana Brown! What are you trying to say!? Just tell me what you're trying to say and I'll help you!!" It was funny, and also stressful. Her mom yelled at her to let me even get a sentence out, and then maybe they would know what I was trying to say! But this family is great. Michelle has an older brother, Bryan, who one time when we went over was reading the medical book that has everything in it. I don't remember what its called, but I know Dad has a ton of them. Bryan is 13. and reading medical books.

I love you all. Its always so good to hear from everyone!

Les Quiero,
Hermana Brown

A Lot of New Investigators

8-24-11
Querida Familia,

Hola Hola!! Sounds like you've all had a busy week! I'm super jealous of the girls all going back to school. Its really bizarre not to be doing the same.

Things are going well here. We found a lot of new investigators this past week, which is exciting. Maria y Luis seem to be doing well. We stopped by to talk to them for just a few minutes the other day, and I asked Luis if he had prayed about the Book of Mormon. He said he had, but he didn't get an answer. But, he said he thinks that means he needs to keep reading. Which is really good. I don't know why he didn't get an answer though, its kind of frustrating. I really think that he has the desire to know, I just don't know if he really believes that it possibly could be true- and that might be holding him back from getting an answer. Or maybe he just hasn't recognized the answer. I don't know. Its basically all Hermana Summers and I talk about during our companionship study, how to help him.

Well, I don't feel like I have any exciting stories for you today. Been a pretty normal week. Finding people, teaching people, being disappointed when people cancel appointments or don't show up for church, etc. The weather has been kind of spooky. We've seen some weird storms. Its a real reminder that Illinois is part of Tornado Alley. We were driving the other day to an appointment when it was storming, and we could see the clouds start to twist and turn into a funnel. Luckily, nothing came of it, but it was still super spooky.

We had an awesome lesson with one of our investigators Silvia this past Sunday, and we were able to have some of our friends Josh and Miel there. The spirit was so strong that Silvia shared some stuff about her difficulties with her boyfriend that she hasn't shared with us before. Josh was able to give her a blessing and he said some awesome things that had to be lead by the spirit. He didn't know that she has some girls in California that she wants to teach about the gospel and she wants them to get baptized. and in the blessing, Josh told her that she would go home and teach her family the gospel and be an example to them. It was awesome awesome awesome.

I LOVE YOU! Let me know how school goes!

Les Quiero,
Hermana Brown

Pictures - Boone County Fair

Hermana Summers and Hermana Brown

English Sisters - Sister Brown and Sister Leahman

Hermana Brown and Hermana Summers

"Cheesin' it at the Boone County Fair"

Pictures - First Day in Chicago

"In Chicago!!"

Hermana Creson and Hermana Brown "In Chicago!!"

Reflection in "The Bean"

Pictures - Last Day at MTC

MTC District and teachers

Hermana Brown, Hermana Allred, Hermana Wilding (teacher) and Hermana Creson

Chicago group and Hermano Brown (teacher, who served in Chicago)

"Good, really good, but weird"

8-17-2011

Familia,

This week I will hit the three month mark of being a missionary. And one month in the field. Its still pretty surreal for me at times. I am still often hit with the realization that I am a missionary and this is my life for the next 15 more months, and its still really weird. Good, really good, but weird. Its also super weird, just like you said mom, that I'm not starting school. I can't believe it.

This week has been pretty good. Our investigator, Sergio, who had a date set to get baptized this Saturday, got a new job a couple weeks ago, and we haven't been able to meet with him since. We've been pretty worried, and wondering if he had just flaked on us and didn't want to get baptized anymore. So last Sunday we decided to go down to DeKalb to see if we could find him at home. We knocked on his door and no one was home. So we walked back to our car that was parked down the street and sat in it trying to figure out what to do. Hermana Summers started making phone calls, and I just sat there and prayed that we would be able to find Sergio. And guess what happened! He pulled into his driveway! Of course, we didn't want to look like creepers, so we left and walked around a cemetery (I know we still sound like creepers), and then went back. He was out front working on his car and we were able to talk to him for a few minutes. Turns out that his work really has just been super crazy, but he couldn't take it anymore and actually told his boss he quit the night before. He told us he was going to North Carolina for the next 5 days to visit some friends (who are members), but when he got back he wanted to be baptized as soon as possible. Without us asking he even reassured all of our fears that he had some things that he was feeling guilty about and that’s why he wasn't getting back to us. We didn't ask, but he told us that the reason he is single is because all the women who are interested want to break the law of chastity, and he won't do that, and that because he's single people have thought he was gay, but he's not, he just is looking for the right woman with the same standards. He's pretty much the bomb. com. He told us to call the branch president for him and tell the president that he's sorry he hasn't been to church. So hopefully when he comes back we can get everything set up and get him baptized by the end of the month!

Yesterday we didn't have any appointments or anything planned, and we were pretty bummed because we knew it meant a lot of knocking doors. We were planning on tracting our guts out all afternoon. We started by going to a neighborhood that we didn't even know existed to follow up on someone we had met elsewhere, but lived in this neighborhood. It is a newer subdivision, and looked pretty well to do. So to be honest, we weren't expecting very many Hispanic families. But we decided to start at the end of the street anyway, and make our way up to this address that we had to follow up on. The first house we knocked was a Hispanic family, and the man who we talked to had some awesome answers to the questions we asked. When we asked its important to him to follow Jesus Christ, he did not give us the typical wishy washy answers we get, but said that its important to follow Christ so that we can have eternal life! We have a return appointment with him and his family this Saturday. The next house we knocked was another Hispanic family! At home was la abuela, Tonya, y su hija, Fabiola. Tonya was babysitting, but she invited us in and then while she was getting the little boy ready to go home, Fabiola came in and talked with us. It turns out that she was actually taught a little while ago by missionaries (my MTC teacher Hermano Brown) and had been to church a couple of times. She said she had a lot of questions about all of the churches she was investigating and a lot of doubts. We had a really good chat with her about how to resolve doubts and get answers, and then we talked about the first lesson. She was pretty involved, answering questions and everything, she seemed to remember a lot. While we were talking, Tonya was in and out, but when Hermana Summers was relating the first vision she was standing right behind our couch and listening very intently. After we finished up talking about the Book of Mormon and everything we asked Fabiola if she would start reading the Book of Mormon again and pray about it. Fabiola said she didn't know how to recognize answers from God, and she doesn't know how to tell if they come from God or from herself. While we were talking about his Tonya came in and sat down on the couch next to Fabiola. We continued to talk and I felt the Spirit really strongly, but Tonya was really quiet the whole time, kind of sitting with her arms crossed looking like she didn't agree. So when it felt like we were about to wrap up, I asked Tonya what she was thinking. And oh boy, did she tell us what she was thinking. For at least an hour she just talked and talked and talked. But it was all good, if I didn't know I would have sworn she's a member, a lot of what she said she believed can all be found in the Book of Mormon! She talked about the Holy Ghost and the difficulties her daughter is having recognizing it, she talked about how she doesn't like that the Catholic Church has so many saints and idols or "imagenes" (which is SUPER prevalent in the Hispanic community, especially with la virgen) and then she just talked and talked some more. It was really good what she was saying, but geez, it was a long time, and we needed to go do more work! While she was talking though, her husband came in. Usually if a family member comes into the house while we're teaching someone, they'll see us there and then make themselves scarce. But he came in, got something to eat, and then sat down a little bit out of the way, on the stairs, but was definitely listening. Anyway, we were finally able to invite Tonya to read the Book of Mormon, and she said she was bad eyes, but Fabiola is going to read to her (hopefully.) We set a return appointment with them for Saturday, and as we were leaving I made sure to give the husband, Guadalupe, a pamphlet about the Restoration so that he could know what we were talking about. So in two hours of "tracting" we knocked two doors, got two return appointments, one lesson, and at least two new investigators. It was awesome.

We decided to spend the rest of the evening finding some other investigators who we hadn't had set appointments with for that week, and we were able to find Maria y Luis, who are doing awesome. Luis is reading, hadn't prayed about it yet, but reading and he said it’s weird, but good. It’s good that he realizes it is something different, I'm really starting to get sick of hearing, "its the same as the catholic church." Maria even got him to pray with us at the end of our lesson. We talked about prophets and authority, which I think was good. Maria seems to think the idea of a prophet is a little weird. She kept getting the giggles, but it turns out she didn't understand a lot about Biblical prophets either, so Luis got to take a turn helping us teach about that. Oh man, they are such a great couple. I love them. Keep them in your prayers!! It’s helping!

Well. I think that’s all I've got for now. Love you all, keep the letters coming!!

Les Quiero,
Hermana Brown