Week #3-Issaquah

Family... Are you kidding me!? No emails from you!? What the heck!!! It's fine. I'm just being forgotten about already....

 

This week was alright. I'm having a really hard time. I'm so homesick it's hard to go out and do somedays. Sister Monks and I are both sick now so that hasn't helped at all. I still have a terrible cough and it just will not go away. She is super congested and has some sort of head cold so we are basically just sharing our germs back and forth. Neither of us can sleep at night so the lack of sleep isn't really helping either.

 

The work isn't really going anywhere right now. We don't have any investigators and we knock doors basically all day. People in Issaquah aren't super friendly or receptive to the message so we get a lot of doors shut in our faces. It's pretty discouraging. We try and see a lot of the less-actives and part member families to help reactivate them so that's where we do most of our work. We do have this one lady, her name is Jami. She was baptized when she was 19 but got offended by someone in the church and hasn't gone back since. She is older now and has kids who aren't members. She loves us and has us over all the time. Mostly it was just social visits for my companion and her last companion but now we're really trying to get her to go back to church and to teach her kids. We are reading Our Search For Happiness with her and she really likes it. By the way, if you haven't read that book, read it! It's awesome. It explains our church so simply and logically. It just makes so much sense so I really love that book.

We met another lady named Peggy. She has member friends and I think was taught a little once before but we're going back this week to hopefully teach her the Restoration so we'll see how that goes.

 

Last night we had our first dinner appointment. We eat with members on Sundays and Mondays. We visit with a lot of members and share spiritual thoughts because no one else will let us in haha. We ate with the Frasers and they served their missions together. He was her Zone Leader and they were married like 2 weeks after they got home. It's a really funny but cool story.

 

Also, yesterday there was a Mission Leadership Broadcast from the Marriott Center at BYU and the quorom of the 12 was there, including the prophet! It was a big deal apparently. They had all the missionaries attend because they were going to make some big announcement. They told us that missionaries in the mornings during study time are now allowed to use the Internet. We can use Facebook and mormon.org and a few other websites and things to help us progress with the work and teach people. Pretty cool.

 

So, I don't have a ton to say this week... Just that it was hard. And I miss you all so much and truthfully I just want to be home. I hate saying that because I don't want to be a quitter but honestly this is the hardest thing I have ever done. It's pretty discouraging here and 18 months is a really really long time ha. Well, I love you guys a lot and hope to hear from you soon! It's pretty quiet over on this end. Talk to you next week!

 

Love, Sister Brian

 

P.s. If you are sending a package, you could throw my ipod in there if you wanted. We can only listen to hymns but any variation of them. So if someone wants to get me a bunch of hymns to put on there that would be awesome. And maybe even some dinky little speakers. Just an idea! Another thing, I want pictures!! Everyone here asks what our families look like and want to see pictures but I don't have any. Sister Monks has a little picture book thing with tons of pictures of her family so if you want to put something together like that I would love it.

 

P.P.S. Dad, I've talked to a lot of people about what you do and everyone here just loves your movies. One of the ladies in our stake was inactive for a while but said those movies got her through her hard times. She said she would watch them over and over and that's what got her going back to church. So that was a cool story!

NOTE: IN CASE YOU THINK WE ARE BAD PARENTS, WE DID WRITE HER BUT I SENT IT TO THE WRONG EMAIL ADDRESS. LUCKILY KURT WAS ABLE TO COMMUNICATE BACK AND FORTH THROUGH EMAIL THAT SAME DAY. POOR GIRL!! 

MTC pics

Montana and Zoe Hart

This is Christian Clark's friend Sister Pingree who is in the Seattle Spanish speaking Mission.

The sisters in her MTC district.

A summer-themed package from the Blacks!

Elder Bailey and his companion.

Sister England---Montana said she saw her basically every day.

Cupcakes from Ari.

Sister Christensen

Seattle bound!

Sister Mobley---her companion.

At the airport ready to leave!

SEATTLE

Hi mom and dad!

 

I feel like I just talked to you! Oh, wait. I did! Haha I feel like I'm talking to you a lot lately but whatever I'm not complaining! Our P-day is normally on Monday but the people who were already here missed it because of transfers. It was complicated so they let us go grocery shopping and check email today. My first day here quite frankly was not the best. We were up at 3 am and leaving the MTC by 4. We flew in to Seattle and had to give away 3 contact cards before we could get our luggage!! Gah it was scary! But, I am doing it for the next 18 months so I better get used to it. Elder Gilbert and his companions picked us up haha it was funny. But nice to see a familiar face. Nobody believed me when I told them we went to prom together haha! We drove right to the mission home and started interviews with the President. The drive was beautiful! This place is so insane! Green everywhere!! And the trees and leaves are HUGE! It's so insanely beautiful! My mouth was open the whole way there. We had lunch at the mission home and then just hung out for a little bit. The poor AP's tried to teach us a few lessons but everyone was so tired that it didn't go so well. I thought I was going to pass out I was so exhausted.

 

Then we went to a church building where we met with all the other missionaries here in Seattle. It was an interesting transfer meeting because this was the transfer that decided what mission you are in. If you got sent to an area in Federal Way you would now be part of that mission. I am staying in Seattle!!! It was crazy because basically everyone got sent to the Federal Way mission. All of the sisters I roomed with in the MTC are in Federal Way. Right now I'm in a place called Issaquah. We are in the Issaquah 1st ward with another set of Elders. My companion's name is Sister Monks. She is awesome! I was freaking out about getting a new companion but she has been great. She has only been out about 3 and a half months and this is her first time training so it's a little scary for both of us. We get to drive the brand new mission car though! Basically every single companionship has a car. She is the only one that gets to drive it though, only senior companions drive. I'm not even one bit mad about it though! Driving here is just weird. All the roads are so windy and twisty and I never know where we are.

 

After we got our new companions we went to where we are staying. We live with a member!! It's so weird! They are nice but the situation is just weird. Their names are the Sparks and it's a little bit of an older couple. They have an apartment downstairs in their house but someone is already living there so we share their guest room. Haha. That also means we share their kitchen. Weird! We get like on shelf on their fridge and have to use their dishes. Haha I dunno it's just so weird to me. So we dropped off my stuff, got Taco Bell, and headed to the ward missionary meeting. Everyone in the wards here is so missionary minded. The bishop, the stake president, the members. It's crazy! So they talked about new people and I just sat. and coughed.

 

I met some people in the ward and the 2 sets of Elders in our zone and then by then we had to be home so we just went to bed. It is so weird being here. It doesn't feel real! The MTC felt like EFY and now it just feels like I'm on vacation. I do love it here though! It's beautiful and my companion is awesome and it's just all good. We have no investigators at this point so we are going tracting tonight and going to visit some former investigators.

 

On a side note, yesterday when we flew here I felt like crap. Honestly I was so sick and I was coughing so hard I was like gagging. My fever came back and I was just not doing well at all. After I had my interview with the President I told Sister Larkin and she was like don't worry it's probably just stress. Nobody believes that I am sick unfortunately so I'm on my own for this one. I've been taking Dayquil and Nyquil, mom. Is that what I should be taking? Any helpful hints??

 

I'm happy to be here! I think! It's so bizarre..  But I love you all anyway!! I'll be at this address for the next 6 weeks so send me letters :):) 280 Mount Olympus Drive Issaquah, WA 98027. Can't wait to here from you!! I'll be writing again less than a week from now haha, This is awesome. Pray that we find some investigators.. This place is really struggling haha nobody is interested. My companion has had some hilarious stories so I'm sure I'll have a few for you next week. LOVE YOU!!

Letter #2

Hi fam!

So, this week was really hard. Remember we talked about how I wasn't going to get homesick because I never do? HA! I have never been so homesick in my whole entire life. Mom, I kept having dreams that you would come to the MTC just to say hi. That didn't really help ha. But it's good because I think I've said more prayers this week than I have in my whole entire life. Here is kind of a run down of what we've done this week.

On Sunday, our Branch President asked us to prepare a 5 minute talk on Faith in Jesus Christ and he was going to call on 2 randomly to give it during sacrament. I had this thought that I was going to get called on.. and... I did. So that was great. It wasn't too bad actually. For Relief Society, we had all the sisters in the MTC in the same place. It was so cool! There were so many!

The rest of the days kind of blend together truthfully. Lots of classes and lots of teaching investigators. We had this one investigator named Claudia who is Catholic but we met with her once and asked her to read the Book of Mormon. We were going back for our second visit with her and she didn't show up! Even though it isn't real I was devastated! I thought she was sincerely interested and now I know how I am going to feel probably every day out in the field haha.

On Tuesday I had this terrible headache that just would not go away and on Wednesday I had the body aches and the headache was still there and I was so congested. We tried to go to the clinic but it was closed so I sucked it up. On Thursday I felt the same so we finally got in to the clinic. The poor nurse asked me what was wrong and I just looked at her and started bawling. It took me a minute to pull myself together and to try and explain what was wrong. They did a strep and flu test on me. By the way, the flu test is the worst thing ever! The strep test sucks cause they shove that stupid swab at the back of your throat that makes you gag but the flu test... Uh. They shoved this really long q-tip looking thing up my nose! Like so far up my nose I was gagging and my eyes were watering. And they had to stick it up both nostrils! It was terrible. But the results came back and I don't have either. So that's good and bad. Good because it's not strep or the flu but bad because it's a virus which means they can't do anything. The doctor gave me some congestion medicine and told me to get some rest. I slept the whole entire day yesterday. The poor sisters had to take turns sitting outside the door in shifts. The Elders in my district offered to give me a blessing so I said yes. It was a really cool blessing. After I went to the clinic I was so worried that I wasn't going to be able to leave to Seattle on time. They are sticklers about making sure that everyone is completely healthy before they send them out into the field so I was stressing. But the Elder who gave me the blessing promised that I would be able to leave on time to Seattle so that made me feel soo much better! I'm feeling a lot better today which is good but I just have a nasty cough now. It was awful trying to sit through a temple session this morning with no water, a tickly throat, and trying to be quiet.

So, I leave for Seattle on TUESDAY! Ah thank heavens! I can't wait to get out there! Which reminds me... I WILL BE CALLING ON TUESDAY MORNING!! I hope you all will make arrangements because I cannot wait to talk to you all!! Mom, I know you're going to be at girl's camp but I hope you have a little bit of service so that I can talk to you! It's going to be pretty early so I'm sorry. Somewhere between5:30 and 8. I'm sorry that's a pretty big time gap but I honestly have no idea. I won't be able to talk very long but I want to atleast for a little. We have to leave the MTC at 4:30 am so it's going to be a pretty early morning. If you want to just send me a dearelder on Monday telling me what numbers to call that would be great.

Thanks for the package by the way! I'm mean and haven't shared the granola but truthfully I just don't want to. It's too good. And I love the shirt! I'm wearing it today! Everything from here on out you will have to send to the mission home in Seattle because I doubt I will have enough time to get anything else. Unless you send it through Postmart on Monday.

How was Lake Powell? I hope it was so much fun! And I hope you took lots of pictures... I need to see this boat. I'm so glad you sold the Jettas! Sorry mine is a pain in the butt. But, it's out of your hair now! Thanks for the letter Em :) I'm writing you back today! Finn and Indy... You guys suck. Write me! You know how missionaries say that getting letters is like Christmas? Well, I always thought they were a little dramatic before but.. It is so true. Getting letters is probably the best thing ever. I hope you all have a great week and the next time I write you it will be from Seattle!!

Thanks for all the love and support! I miss you all more than you know! This has been  one of the hardest things I've ever done but I've learned more and grown more than I ever have. This church is true. The Book of Mormon is becoming my most favorite book ever! I LOVE YOU ALL! SO MUCH!

Sister Brian

Letter #1

Hello family!!!!!

I'm so excited to be emailing you right now!!! The first 2 days were good...hard, but good. It's only my 3rd day here but I feel like I've been out for a week! It's the weirdest thing. Truthfully I haven't had a breakdown yet so I'm going strong. I see Sister Christensen a lot so sometimes it's hard to keep it together when I see her. But basically everyone I know is here! I saw Elder Bradshaw on the first day, I saw Zoe Hart, and I've seen Macy! I see so many people I know so that's really cool. My companion is named Sister Mobley (pronounced Mawbly). She's from Georgia. My district is really cool. One kid named Elder Bailey is from Orem and he went to Timpanogos so that's cool having someone be from home. Our Branch President is President Mangum and he actually knows the Brothersons really well (our next door neighbors).

So, the first day we had a lot of different meetings and orientations and things like that. Then, we had to teach!! Our first day!! It was...interesting. There was a group of like 90 of us teaching one investigator so it was hard to get across what we were trying to teach. That part was actually really discouraging. I feel like everyone is just leaps and bounds ahead of me spritually. So hearing all of their spiritual comments and things.. I dunno. But i'm working on it.

Yesterday we had a lot of personal study time. That was nice just being able to study what I wanted. But now we are teaching one of our teachers posing as an investigator so we are studying for his needs and trying to figure out how to best teach him.

Friday is my p-day so today we get to go to the temple! I'm so excited to do that!! I'm sorry to do this to you but I have a few things I need... Haha. I need q-tips! I'm so dumb I don't know how I forgot them. And.. If you feel the need. You could send some basic colored shirts or tops. I'm coming to realize now how many skirts I have with no shirts to wear. Oh! I forgot a toothbrush! How stupid is that!? Yeah that was an embarrassing moment.. Haha I had to go find a Sister who had an extra. Thankfully someone did. Well.. I think that's all for now.

I don't have anyone else's emails so mom if you want to post on Facebook asking people or something? Or I'll just send this to you and you do whatever with it.

I miss you all like crazy!! Seriously I do! I wish I could give you all one more big hug but I'm here and I'm working hard. I love you all soooo much!!!

P.S. I get to be on later today so if you get this just reply real fast and I'll send another email :)

Love,

Sister Brian

MTC Day

Sister Koch, Sister Christensen, Sister Brian

Greetings!

Been a while, hasn't it? Haha...yikes.

But, my blog is going through some changes right now so bear with me.

It is now officially....a missionary blog!!

I'll have my mom put my letters and updates on here so this is where my adventures in Seattle will be!

The church is true, the book is blue. See you in 18!!