Baptism

Mom and Dad
 
So yes!!!
It happened. Irita was baptized!! :))))
Ahh I am dying, I still can't believe it. It has been truly amazing
seeing the change that has take place in her over the past months. I
love this woman so much and I am so grateful that was able to teach
her. I can't wait until I get to see her again in the celestial
kingdom. What a great moment that will be.
 

Sunday we saw many miracles. We had a less active come to church. This
was her first time since she was baptized several years ago... So that
was amazing. Then we also were able to see one investigator come to
church and then one come to the baptism.
Jasmine, lately we have been teaching and working with her. Wow. She is
awesome. She has so much faith and desire it is crazy. She is going to
bet baptized one day, I know it. Yesterday after the baptism she was
talking to Sister Budge and she told her that she wants to get
baptized. Like hearing that was music to our ears. It blows my mind
that Jasmine had to come all the way from Mexico so that she could
hear the gospel and start learning it. I am very grateful for her.
 

This week it was so hot!! Saturday was the hottest day so far! Oh my
gosh. Like it was so hot and I was sweating so bad but whatever. It
felt great. I will take being extremely sweaty over being so cold that
it hurts to walk.
 

It's crazy how busy I have been lately. Time is going by way to fast.
Like, what the heck.  Happy 11 month mark by the way! That's just not

normal.I can't believe that I have been out on my mission that long. 

I have been so extremely blessed to have seen so many amazing miracles 

happen in my mission. I have met some of the most amazing people. I know 

that serving a mission has changed me and my life completely. And I am so
extremely grateful for that!!
 
Thank you for the package!! Ahhh it literally was exactly what I
needed!! It hit the spot and everything! Thank you thank you thank
you! And the post card!! Ahh I want to go to the cabin so bad! Dad my
biking skills have gotten pretty killer lately so I can't wait to go
down the mountain with you! Let's take up mountain biking as a hobby.
Don't worry mom, I will so go with you and Karen on your bike rides in
the morning. I wouldn't miss those things for anything!! Tooo fun!

 
This week was just truly amazing and I am looking forward to working
as hard as I can so that I can see many other awesome miracles here in
nagaoka!!
 
I love you guys so much!! Thank you so much for all of your love and support!!
XOXO
Sister Brown

Another Great Week

Mom and Dad
 
So this week was another great week here in Nagaoka!!
Wow I truly have seen so many miracles this week. We have met so many
awesome people and have had so many awesome lessons. On Sunday we
should be hopefully having a baptism here. I am so excited. Please
please please keep irita in your prayers, I know that Satan is going
to be working extremely hard on her right now and she needs all the
strength that she can get right now.

This week has been so rainy. It's been raining almost every single
day. Which is not cool one bit. But what can you do. Haha I guess you
could say I just love my rain pants (��_��)........

This week we have interviews with president budge. I am nervous
haha. I always get nervous. And then on Sunday president and sister
budge will be at nagaoka church. So the pressure is on! I hope that we
can have many people at church so we can show him how hard we are
working.
 

This week I have learned that when you are working your hardest the
lord will show you the miracles he promises. But something I have
learned that timing is so important to god. To always remember gods
time not your time. God has a huge plan and he has everything figured
out I just have to help with the timing.
 

Lately one of my favorite scriptures is 2 Nephi 32:5.
I just love that scripture I think I love it the most because of the
gift of the Holy Ghost. Lately with investigators we have been talking
about that gift so much and my testimony has grown so much of the Holy
Ghost. I know that just because I will probably never see Heavenly
Father or Jesus Christ in this life, I know that I can feel their
love.
 
Thanks for sending me a package!! I really Am happy. I should
hopefully get it this week!! Yay!
 

Haha typical flaming gorge. But I am sure that it was fun! I want to
go next year. Kate and mike will be home so that could, be fun with 

them there!! I can't believe it's already like the 24th. Time is flying by

here.  Like seriously it is so crazy!!
 

Sister Clark is an amazing missionary I am so pumped to be companions
with her. She is from the o.c. But she went to byu and lived in
Japan for several years because of her dad's work.
Ahhhhh the angels. I am glad that are killing it, if only I could be
home to watch them! I am sorry that you won't be able to see any of
their games while  you are there.. Next year when we go, we need to
make sure that we get to see a game or two haha. Please
It's crazy to think that life is still chugging along back home when I
am here.

I am so excited for lizzy!! She is going to be an awesome missionary, tell 

her there is no reason to be stressed right now. Don't get stressed before your
mission because you basically are stressed everyday of your mission so
save yourself and enjoy your self right now, while you can haha. Yay
for missions!!
Love you guys so much!! Keep having fun!
XOXO
Sister Brown

Here I am in my 7/11 raincoat

Sister Clark

Mother and Father
 
Yes, I am safe and doing good! I didn't feel the earthquake but I wish
I did. Our phone did the crazy earthquake alarm in the middle of the
night letting us know one was about to happen, but I didn't feel it.
But oh did it rain here. We got some of the effects from the typhoon.
It poured for several days. Like the trains were crazy everything was
late or not even working. But good thing I got my rain coat from 7/11
so I was able to stay dry! I didn't know there was a tsunami, where
did that take place.
 
Sister Clark! She is amazing! I am so happy to be companions with her.
We have so many things in common. And she is like a beast missionary so
I am learning so much from her and I hope one day I will be able to be
as good of a missionary as she is. It's cool that she already served her
because she knows the area and the people and what not so that helps
out so much!
 
So being a sister training leader I am still not really sure what I
do.. But I think it's for the sisters. Like in helping and training
the sister missionaries in my zone. Like we will do exchanges with the
sister and such. I am so excited because it's such an opportunity for
me to learn and grow and to be able to help out other sister
missionaries.
 
That's cool that you were able to speak to brother smart. He is a
great guy! I am glad he came and that I was able to meet him. He was
the first that came back and visited. But yesterday at church this
family came the mother grew up in our ward but then she got married
well I don't really know the story. All I know is that she is married
to an American and they have he cutest daughter and they live in
draper. They came here to visit because it's summer vacation. So that
was cool.
 
Sounds like the ward and everything is doing great!
 
Have fun a FG!! Who is all going and who will all be up there! When
are you going to California? I want to go.. Haha
 
Poor Millie! Jeeez that looks terrible and painful! I am so sorry that
that happened to her! Millie is strong she will be great! But yeah
that looks like it kills. I feel so bad for her. Such a terrible
place for that to happen.
 
This week we saw a ton of miracles! We saw so many miracles.
3 people came to church. We have investigators that are progressing
and it's amazing. Missionary work is so fun. We are so busy everyday,
we get home and just are exhausted. 

We even have a baptismal date! July 27th I am so excited! Please
please please pray for her that she will get baptized. She needs this
so much! And Satan is truly trying his hardest on her right now. It's
not fair at all. Satan....
 

I am so excited to go out and work hard this week. I am so glad that
sister Clark has so much desire because it really helps when your
companion likes to do missionary work! Please pray for nagaoka because
the elders also have a baptismal date with a guy the same day as our
and trust me, Nagaoka truly needs this so please keep them in your
prayers.
 

Thank you so much for all of your love and support! It means the world
to me!! Be safe and have fun!!
XOXO
Sister Brown

Transfers

Mom and Dad
 
Happy 4th of July.
My favorite holiday spent in a place where they don't celebrate it....
How sad, but oh well. I wouldn't change being here for anything!!😛I
sounds like you had so much fun! I can't wait for next year. I love
the 4th of July. The yard looks amazing pa
 

This past week was truly amazing. I saw so many people and made so
many awesome relationship and say so many miracles!!
On Saturday night guess what I saw. fireflies! My first time ever, we
went with some investigators together and saw them. It was so cool!!
So surreal. I want to see them again. Have you ever seen them before?
Lizzy is way lucky, I feel like where she is serving they will exist
so, if so, hopefully she will be able to see them!!
Bahhhh so today was transfer calls. Scary
And the news is I am staying in nagaoka for another transfer!! Truly
an answer to my prayers!! There is so much working and so many
miracles going on right now!! My new companion is sister Clark. She
opened this area for sisters about 1 year ago. So that is going to
help out sooooo much!!! And we are the STL. So that will be good. I am
never about being a sister training leader but I am way excited at the
same time
 

So once again the last Sunday of the month was truly amazing. So many
miracles happened today. Let's see, we had two new investigators at
church today. Melody and jasmine! Melody is from the Philippines and
jasmine is from Mexico!! This is going to be weird but all this time I
have been in nagaoka I just kept saying and thinking I need to find
some one who speaks Spanish. I need to find someone who is Mexican.
And look here she is and it's amazing. Jasmine was found through
Facebook networking. Her friends are friends with the elders and she
messaged the elders saying she loves Jesus Christ and wants to come to
our church and everything. SO AMAZING. And melody is friends with one
of the elders investigators. We always see her at the restaurant we go
to. And on Wednesday while we were eating she came up to us and was
like hey, I am going to your church on Sunday! Ha and we were like
wait what. It was funny. So another sacrament meeting, melody had to
leave and she was telling us as she was leaving how much she loved
church and she said next week she wants to share with everyone her
story about god. So that was cool. This week we are meeting with
jasmine again. She asked if we meet more than once a week as a church
and I told her no and she was like tots bummed, but I quickly told her
that we can get together through out the week and study together and
she was so excited. I should probably brush up on my Spanish. Josh
please help. Facebook lesson together? Haha and of course I can't
forget about iritas. Man that woman has a mind of her own. She
literally just shows up every week. It's so amazing. We never truly
know if she is going to come or not.
 

Also at church on Sunday was brother smart. I talked about him a
couple weeks ago. Like he is the guy that Skyped in at stake
conference like with the guy that just came back to church after being
less active. Anyways turns out he is from Murray. Well he went to
Murray. He lives is draper now. And so I asked him if he knows any of
my friends parents and of course he knows Sam and kori and Karen and
Trent. And I am sure he knows like everyone else too. Just a sweet
taste of home. I loved it. This last week was truly amazing. I know
that when you work as hard as you can and truly dedicate your self to
the work, Heavenly Father notices that and he will provide the means
for you to accomplish what he has asked!
 
XOXO
Sister Brown

June 29, 2014

Mom and Dad
 
So no I still haven't gotten my hair cut... I am still a little
affected by your comment mom.... Jeez..thanks. I didn't think it
looked that bad, just joking. I forgot to ask my friend where is best,
but next week! Next Monday if I transfer I will get one and if I don't
transfer I will get one. So don't worry.
 
Th cabin sounds fun!! Ahh you just need to ride your bikes in the
rain. Don't be whimps. Come on I do it in the pouring rain while
wearing a skirt haha :) I am excited to go there and ride bikes with
yalll very soon! I can't believe you had no shakes! What is a trip to
the cabin if you don't get a treat...l how sad :(
 
It's crazy like all my friends missions are coming to am end! Wow Kate
and mike have been gone for one year!! Time is flying by, like for me,
ten months seems soooo long ago but it's going so fast. It's crazy! I
can't believe it.
 
Geeez dad I know I remember last 4th of July perfectly. I wonder if
that's the reason why he never called me again... Haha I guess that's
the way to tell if there is any potential haha :) obviously there
wasn't. Good to know. I hope I don't run into that same problem this
year! Have fun at the party at Gordon and tiffs! That's always a
party! I bet it will be so fun. Don't forget to take your swim suit so
you can go down the water slide! Tell them I say hello!!
 
So Facebook? It's was crazy. To be honest I completely forget my
passwords so it was a challenge trying to log on and figure it out but
I was finally able to! So that was good! Anyways yeah so I still have
the same fb but I just had to take some pictures down and stuff and
like my news feed I keep having to clean it so I don't get distracted
by what's going on in the world around me. Which is good because it's
so easy to get distracted on it! I mean I haven't been on it for 10
months, and I forget that the world around me in changing and people
are changing. I forget that keeps happening. But it's going to be such
a great tool and I know that it will help out so much in staying in
contact with our investigators. So please,feel free to comment and
like my things. We want the world to know that Mormons are just 
normal people. They are crazy weird people. We just believe in Jesus
Christ and are striving to become like him everyday!
 
This week has been good but kind if hard and dumb. So many people are
anti Christ out here. Like we can have a great conversation about
things and totally get to know people and as soon as we start talking
about Jesus or they read our name tags or see out flyer's. It's like
everything shuts down and we are with a brick wall haha. But it's all
good. There are people all around here that do talk to us so we just
need to do all that we can to help all those people that are being
prepared!!
 
I love you guys so much! Have a great week
ブラウン姉妹(^_^)v

Yo Yo Yo June 22, 2014

Mom and Dad
 

Another week in the greatest place ever. This week was full of
growing. We had a mission conference so president and sister budge
graced us with their presences this past weekend. Also we had stake
conference. So cooool beans. Let's just say, this weekend was full of
nonstop Japanese and I am mentally and physically worn out haha. By
Sunday night I was ready to kill over.
 

The conference was way good. And I learned so much from it and I have
a huge desire to become even better. We talked a lot about diligence
and about accountability. But the best thing truly was we talked about
being up here in Niigata and serving in nagaoka. I need to be a branch
strengthener and a ward builder. And I am truly starting to see some
miracles happen.
 

This past week, we went and visited a less active. We teach her about
once a week. And she is great. She is probably like four feet tall
haha she is tiny and have a hump back and purple hair haha. She is the
bomb. And like she is so hard. She says she is too old and that she
doesn't remember anything but it's a lie, you are never too old for
the gospel and she does remember stuff. But this week when we follows
up with her, she said yes she kept her commitment. We asked her to try
and pray every day. She said she only prayed once but that's the first
commitment I have ever seen her keep!!! I was so excited. This week we
challenged her to try and pray twice!
 

The Saturday night session of stake conference was amazing!! It was
truly amazing. President budge asked one of the less active members
from our branch to speak, and just so you know he was less active for
years! The sad thing was he was like a branch president and
everything. Anyways my first Sunday in nagaoka he came back to church
and he has been back ever since. He is so amazing. It breaks my heart
that he use to be less active. But anyways president budge asked him
to share his story about coming back. He gets up and starts talking
and basically he says he got rid of everything related to the church
expect for the Book of Mormon that was given to him by the missionary
that baptized him and he said he tried his best to forget all of the
church doctrine and he said he forgot it all but the promise that the
elder gave him. Which was if I don't see you again in this life, I
will see you in the celestial kingdom. I promise. Those two things he
could never forget or get rid of. So then time went by he worked with
the missionaries and now he is back. Well the whole time he was
talking with out him knowing, the elders worked with president budge
and they got that elder, elder smart to Skype in so he could hear him
talk, and them after they hooked up the iPad to the projector and
everything so that they could see each other and talk. Like I can't
explain to you how amazing it was. The spirit that was there was
soooooo strong. I can't describe the joy and the happiness and the
peaces that felt. Seeing those to men with tears rolling down their
faces, tears of pure joy was one of the best moments of my entire
mission.
 

This past week was truly amazing. I am so grateful and so humbled and
I am so excited for Lizzy to start her mission adventure.
Guess who comes home soon!!!! Garrison. He will be home on the 30th!!
I had a great birthday here! We had district lunch and went to a less
actives members restaurant. And they treated us like kings. They made
me a cake and they made us all this food and had like the table all
set up for us anything. It was great. Then that night the dendo shunin
and his wife came over and gave me some presents. I love being in
other places for my birthday but next year let's celebrate together,
okay? Family is what matters right?!

 Xoxo
Sister Brown

Xoxo
Sister Brown