Week #74

HELLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO everyone!

It's been a minute. But here I am. Starting my last 6 weeks. Whaaaatthewhat!? Kinda freakin out. It's fine. Totally bittersweet.

So I don't even remember this past week to be honest... Kind of a blur. We had lots of members come out with us but it was definitely a slower week. Plus, I don't have my planner so I can't even tell you what happened. Then, transfers!!!! I totally had a feeling that something was changing but I had no idea what. SOOOOO Sister Salabao got transferred! Then... The next morning they called me to be a trainer!! HOLY.... I was like, are you sure?? Yikes. Ahh well. God I guess knows what is best....

So, we get to the transfer meeting and I find out... I'm training 2 sisters!!!! OH MY HECK. So one, Sister Clayson is from Spanish Fork, UT and is a 2nd grade teacher. She has been out 6 weeks so I'm finishing her training and the other, Sister Beenfield is from Riverdale, UT and is straight from the MTC. Ha! I really don't know whose idea this was....

BUT it's been soooo good! Man, I never thought I would be a trainer but it's so so good for me. Training I really feel like I need to be on my A game all the time. I mean, I probably should be anyway.... but now my every move is being watched! Oh, the pressure. This past 2 days have been very prayer-filled. These sisters are soo wonderful though. I'm learning more than they are!

Well, there is my life! That's all I got. Or atleast all I can remember. These next 6 weeks are going to be awesome! LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH.

SISTA BRIAN

Goodbye Sister Salabao!

Week #68

Sorry friends... This is going to be a super short email! I was sick basically all week. I had a nasty cold/flu thing. The head and body aches and fever and sore throat and alllll of that good stuff. So after a trip to the doctor, we spent the better part of the week inside. Man, by the end of the week I was dying to get outside! It's funny how in missionary work if you don't go outside and work you have nothing to do! Ha. So now I am more appreciative than ever of being able to go outside and work. I did appreciate the extra sleep though :)

 

Jo and Cory came to church this week! Send extra prayers their way. We are doing our very best to help them progress. Some people just take longer than others!

 

I love you all. I LOVE this gospel. I LOVE my family. I am sooo blessed. Honestly, God is wayyy too good to me. Be grateful! It makes everything better.

 

LOVE,

SISTA BRIAN

Week #56

Tell everyone in Coronado I say hi!!!! And please pray for us in this area haha. I am so scared to white-wash and I've wanted to cry all day haha. It's going to be great.

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EM!!!!! LOVE YOUR GUTS!!!!! You crazy teenager you. Don't be too cool for me when I get home.

 

I don't have my new address yet so if you have anything to send, send it to the mission office please :)

 

LOVE YOU SO MUCH. Have so much fun in Coronado! Totally jealous.

 

 

Week #51

Sorry no email last week... I ran out of time. Oops! It was a terrible week to run out of time too because we had SO many miracles! First off, we found a family of 9!! 9 PEOPLE!! It was amazing!! 6 of them are baptismal age and we are so excited! They are from Sudan and it was incredible. Then we had 14 people come to church!! Oh my heavens we were in complete shock. So was our ward haha it was the best.

So this week, we are still working with our awesome family. The parents are doing great and have already committed to do everything. We're so excited! Then Mary is another investigator from Sri Lanka. Then, we have 2 investigators from Ethiopia and Togo in Africa. Who else.... All these foreigners! It's been great though we are super happy. Prayers for all of these people would be awesome! Sorry I'm running low on time again.. HA I'm the worst. This email is super scattered and not that cool. Sorry.

What else... oh. just a little something small. I TURN 21 ON SUNDAY!!!!! Yes, I'm stoked. Yes, I remind my companion every day, and yes, members are feeding us waffles. (my favorite food)

Well, I love you all! Thanks for being amazing!

SISTA BRIAN

Week #38

"WOOOOOOW we're halfway there, wooooaaaaaahhhhh livin' on a praaaaaayer!!!" That has definitely been the theme song for the week. Ugh, I have been exhausted this week!! Mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally.... However else I can be exhausted I am. I've broken down like 8 times this week. Tears have actually come out of my eye balls when the alarm goes off in the morning. Also, i was running the other morning and totally broke down into tears. (Remember mom that time in Coronado when we were running and I just started bawling!? HAHA) Clearly my spiritual stamina is really weak right now. So if anyone has any tips, tricks, or things of that nature to help, send them my way!!

 

Along with being exhausted, i've been very humbled. Our investigators are progressing fine, or so we thought, until they started making comments that led us to believe they don't understand what we're teaching. I've been able to answer every question they've thrown my way but clearly i'm talking at them. Not TEACHING them. I've come to realize that this is definitely my weak point. I have a hard time recognizing and feeling the Spirit so it's hard to let him take over. I've just come to realize how important it is when we're teaching or people don't understand... Like our investigators. So, it's something i'm working on.

 

Not much else to report! It was transfers this week but Sister Imai and I are both staying. I'm pretty happy about that. I like this area. Anyway, I think that's it!! Sorry my emails get lamer and lamer every week... But I appreciate all the love and prayers!! They are definitely felt. I love you all!!

 

sister brian!

Week #32

I got transferred!!!! Here I am last night thinking I was totally good and BAM. call from the Zone Leaders. I was blindsided! I'm so sad to be leaving Washington Park! We were finally starting to get things going there and I didn't want to leave my companions or Veronika! It was definitely a sad moment. But I'm excited about my new area! It's still in the same zone but we kicked elders out and me and my companion are white washing the area. Our AP called and told me that this area really needs help. They haven't had a baptism in over a year and is really struggling so he needs me and my new companion to go in and help it out. I don't know what the heck he expects ME to do!?.... hahaha but he said he has faith in me so we'll see how it goes. My new companion is darling though! Her name is Sister Imai from Japan. She came out the same time is me and is the most angelic and christ-like person I know!! Hopefully some of that will rub off on me haha. Her english is kind of rough so hopefully the gift of tongues will work for both of us!

 

Not a ton happened this last week.. It was pretty slow, not a ton of people were home but funny story for you all! So yesterday we were driving to see a less-active who ended up not being home so I'm trying to get us out of their neighborhood when Sister Prows screams STOP!!! I'm freaking out like I just hit someone and she just yells, "We have to go help that old man!!!" Now I'm dying thinking that I just hit this old man!! But really it was just this little old man taking down his christmas lights haha. So after I punched Sister Prows we all went and asked if he wanted help. He told us no but said his wife was in the kitchen so he opened the door and basically shoved us inside. We were a little flustered but went in and this lady was so surprised to see us! we ended up talking to them for like 2 hours! they aren't members but know lots of them. They called one of their member friends and I had to talk to him on the phone!! Weird! Anyway, he told me to tell the couple that they needed to hear us teach the Plan of Salvation to them. It was pretty funny. They agreed and said we could come back! Well..... now my companions will go back..... But anyway, miracle of the week.

 

I'm excited to be in this new area and to hopefully be getting some things going here! Sister Imai is just radiating with the Spirit all the time so I'm going to take a page out of her book!

 

I love you all!!!

 

Sista Brian

Week #26

It was transfers so sorry for the late email! I forgot to mention it last week. But, I am staying here in Washington Park so nothing exciting there. But I did get a new companion so that's cool! Her name is Sister Prows from Murray. She was my sister-trainer leader my first 3 transfers so I know her pretty well already.

 

This week was incredibly slow as you can imaagine. Holidays are hard on a mission because people ARE home but it doesn't mean they want to talk! On Thanksgiving we had a zone activity and got to spend the morning playing games and having treats. It was pretty fun. I spent pretty much the whole time playing Settlers of Catan with some elders. It reminded me of home! After we went to have dinner at the Stake Center. Every year our stake puts on a dinner for singles or people who don't have anywhere to go so that's what we did. We helped clean up afterwards and I think I did dishes for 2 hours straight. No kidding. Then we drove around trying to find members to visit but no one was home... We ended up at a really nice old couple's house for dessert. They had their whole family of like 25 there so it was slightly awkward but whatever. So that was my Thanskgiving!

 

We visited Richard and Marie again this week.. I might have talked about them before. Richard is really sick and has lots of health issues and had a brain annuerism or something like that... So we saw them in the hospital. They are the sweetest.

 

Our investigator Zola is not really willing to work right now... We don't want to give up on her just yet but she is so wishy washy! Ah it makes me crazy! But i love her anyway. Just keep her in your prayers that she quits smoking.

 

On a side note... I made it almost a whole 6 months without playing the piano in a meeting and my streak got ruined this Sunday!! It wasa a little boy in our ward's baptism and no one was there. So of course I got roped into playing... It actually wasn't as bad as I thought! But hopefully it doesn't happen aagain haha.

 

Other than that, nothing else exciting happened this week! I hit my 6 month mark on Thursday!!! Crazy!!

 

Thank you all for the love and support!!!

 

Oh, P.S. Our mail has been dumb this week and some of it could potentially be sent back.. If it is I'm sorry the address really is right!!! Just send it agaain :)

 

Love,

 

Sister Brian

Week #21

This week... was awesome. Hooray!!! I love it here. It's so different from Issaquah and it is exactly the change I needed. My new companion and I get along great! Which is awesome. She has only been here for 1 transfer longer than me and sisters haven't been in this area forever so we're figuring things out together. It's funny because we have certain areas that our bishop told us to avoid at night. Ha! We have some sketchy parts here. I think it's funny.

 

Our apartment overlooks the water which is so cool! I have no idea where anything is and I'm all turned around so truthfully I don't know what I'm looking at but it's way sweet anyway. The view makes up for the apartment. We live in a freaking shoe box! It's a one-bedroom apartment and probably the smallest thing ever. We don't even have a full size fridge! There is no dishwasher and no garbage disposal either. Apparently I was living the high-life in Issaquah.

 

But it really is great here. We pick up food from members almost every night of the week so that has been not so great. Everybody seems to think the sisters are running out of treats! We are NOT! But the ward is great. The bishop likes to have the missionaries involved with everything they do so we go to most activities and the sisters are active members of young women. They have 5 young women!!! So crazy. They had a trunk-or-treat that we got to go to, which was really cute. Then, at church on Sunday.... Oh my gosh. The people here!!! They are so liberal!!! The lesson in Relief Society turned into a debate on gay marriage. The ladies that were speaking seemed to think that once we got some 'new blood' into the leadership that gay marriage would be allowed. Yikes.

 

As far as the work goes, we have a ward of almost 500 people and maybe 150 are active so there is lots of work to do! We are just trying to figure things out. We did have a lesson with a less-active who has started coming back to church which is awesome! But during the lesson, i don't know what it was but I totally fell asleep! Hahaha it was hilarious. Thankfully she is going blind and deaf so she had no idea...

 

Anyway, i think that's it! Halloween should be interesting. Our Zone Leaders said we were going out to proselyte?! But we couldn't figure out if they were kidding or not.. Regardless of that, Sister Boyd and I will probably be spending the night at a member's. Our area is too sketchy to be out!! Okay. I think that's all now.

 

I love my Savior and I know he is there! I am soooo incredibly blessed and I know it all comes from Him. The church is true!

 

Sister Brian

Week #14

Wow.. Transfers! I made it another one so I am still staying in Issaquah!! It's a blessing and a curse. I love this place and I truly hate it sometimes haha. It's just great. But my new companion is Hyunah Lee from our home ward!! Haha hilarious. It's been alright for the 2 hours I've been with her so far so we'll see how the next 6 weeks goes....

 

So this week we did a ton of service! It's a miracle since no one will ever let us do service! But an awesome lady in our ward works at a place called House of Hope. It's a place where women can go and live for free with their children if they have an abuser have been abandoned... Things like that. It's like a women's shelter but they live in million dollar houses. It's insane. But they have people donate clothes so we got to go and organize the clothes! It was awesome. And I got to wear pants!! That barely fit. It's proof I'm getting fat! GAHHHH. But whatever...

Also we helped Brandy with some service. She has a huge garden and she cans EVERYTHING. Seriuosly everything. So we got to go and help her can! It was awesome. Then she sent us home with so much stuff! So much squash and zucchini! (by the way mom, I made bread and everyone loved it!!!)

What else... I hit my 3 month mark!! I can't believe it! As I always say, it's a miracle I made it this far. And that about wraps up my week. Haha pretty slow week. But it's all good. Hopefully I'll have some more cool things to say next week. My emails are getting pretty boring. Anyway. Love you all!!!!

Week #8

Sorry that I didn't get to email yesterday! They move P-days to Tuesday on transfer weeks. Sister Monks and I are staying together and staying in the same area too! Just a different apartment. The address is 200 Newport Way SW #203. The city and zip are the same as last time. So you can share that and send stuff now :) I'll be sure to take pictures.

 

Lake Powell sounded like a blast! I can't believe Em didn't go. The pictures were awesome! A nice reminder of what life used to consist of ;) Sounds like Em had fun at the Ranch though! I miss that place so much! Our investigator Brandi's house smells like it. I haven't decided if that's a good thing or a bad thing yet but it does. So I get reminded pretty often. Poor grandma though! It sounds like a mess down there. I hope everything gets fixed up alright.

 

By the way, mom, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I should've said something in my email last week but I just didn't think about it. I'm sorry! But I hope your day was fabulous! I'm excited for you and dad to try out your new bikes! Be sure to get matching outfits when you're really good. It's a good thing you don't look a day over 25 mom :) But really. I missed you even more than I normally do on Sunday so just know that I really was thinking about you! I wish I could've done something for you but i'm a missionary. Haha I'm poor and don't have a ton of resources so sorry... Sounds like Maddie did the job for me though. haha

 

It sounds like Zach did a great job! He is a sweet kid and I'm super excited for him! Stephen mentioned he saw you guys and was super embarrassed he didn't recognize you til like right after ha. Oh well. He leaves on September 4th to Spain. Madrid I'm pretty sure?

 

I loved reading Finn's email! The poor kid is in a trio.. I hear that's pretty rough sometimes. he'll be fine though! It's all a big adjustment. Thanks for forwarding me his letter! Keep me updated on him if you hear from him anymore.

 

Thanks for the help on the work! That advice is awesome! I'm trying to do everything that I can within my power to be obedient and I'm hoping it rubs off. It's not terrible but sometimes it's frustrating when she just won't help ya know? But I'll try all those things and hope they work out! I don't want contention so I'll do it gently. Thank you!!

 

So mom, did you get Jami's voicemail? haha I'm not sure what the rules are on that but that woman has a mind of her own. She said if it was ever an emergency or I absolutely had to get in contact with you I should go through her. We'll see about that.

 

Well, I think that's all. Oddly enough, I'm starting to love it out here! Weird!! I'm so grateful for this opportunity and the experiences I'm having. I love this gospel and the chance I have to share it with others! I love you guys soo much and am so grateful for the support! Have a good week!!

 

Sister Brian