Pictures!

What a week!

Dear Family,

What a week it has been! So much has happened since last P-day. Tuesday we flew to Ekat to do splits with the sister trainers and en route to the airport, President Christensen called us. A lot of dumb laws have been created and (in short) all the Ukrainians are leaving our mission to either serve in Ukraine or in the Baltic states. It's really sad and Sister Fedas and I were devastated. Our plane to Ekat ended up getting delayed 6 hours (Oh Russia.....) so we went and got ice-cream to console ourselves. Of course en route to ice-cream I slipped and fell hard in the middle of the road (pretty embarrassing) and now I have a GIGANTIC bruise on my hip. The size of a plate. But it's already been a week, and it's healing up nicely so don't fret :)

Splits in Ekat was super fun. I've been in Ufa for almost seven months, so it was cool to do splits in another city. I was with Sister Sullivan and she's 6'1". We're the tallest sisters in the mission, and I loved being with her. Sister Fedas is about 5'10" and my mini-missionary companion now is 5'1" so it's kind of a big change for me being with a short sister. 

Well, we returned from Ekat and met with a lot of people (we're always busy!) and Sister Fedas said goodbye to everyone. Sister Smith's companion extended her mission 30 days (you can't extend beyond that) and so she was going home. Sister Smith needed a companion, so Sister Fedas is with Sister Smith and I got a mini missionary for the rest of the transfer. At the end of the transfer (in two weeks), Sister Fedas leaves Russia and she's so sad about it. I am too, of course. I hate politics, and I especially hate dumb laws that take my trainee away from me. We grew a lot together, and I was really sad to see her go. But I know that Sister Smith will help her adjust and find peace with her reassigned mission call. 

I had a great birthday on Sunday. Some members in the branch knew about it, so they brought me some gifts. The elders "forgot" (they didn't really forget of course) and sang to me before sacrament meeting-- Sister Fedas just kind of hummed along since she doesn't know the birthday song. But Sunday was just like any other day. Birthdays are pretty lame on a mission, and I'm glad I'm only going to have one. We met with one of our investigators, and so that was great. P-day last week I bought a new blouse for about $10 for my birthday and I've been wearing that. The package from mom hasn't come yet, BUT I got two packages from friends. Full of candy, of course. I love you! I hope mom's package comes when I go back to Ekat for transfers to get my new companion (whoever that will be!) I really hope it's there by then because I'm super looking forward to that dress.

Monday we flew to Ekat (I feel like I've been flying there a lot lately....). And there was a big party at the Christensen's that night with both zones from Ekat to celebrate the sister going home and the fact that President Christensen's son just returned from a mission in Tennessee (he said he knows Taylor Smith). 

I feel super isolated in Ufa because the only people I knew at that party were my companion, Sister Smith, and two other missionaries who had served in Ufa (of course I also knew the assistants and sister trainers). Wow-- it was a weird experience to get to know other missionaries serving in the same mission. One elder said "how have you already been here seven months and we haven't met each other?" Our zone conference is just Ufa and Chelyabinsk whereas the other zone conference is the other six or so cities. So I know very few of the other missionaries.

We had a really good lesson this week with our investigator. We taught her the Word of Wisdom and she easily accepted it. At the end of the lesson she asked "is that all you have to teach me today?" and was surprised we hadn't planned more. I was so grateful that she readily accepted that lesson because (understandably) a lot of people have issues with it.

One miracle with planning this week was being in Dioma. Dioma is a great little town, and I really wish that there were missionaries there because there is so much work to do, and we don't spend as much time there as needed. We had some appointments set up there on Saturday but somehow they all fell through (unusual), so we resorted to doing less-active stop-bys. We were able to meet a long-time member that I have never met before! She never opens the door for us, but at that time on that day, she decided to. We had a super short lesson with her, but she promised to meet with us this week. I was so happy!

Miracles with the Book of Mormon just keep on happening. We are working with a less-active lady whose only problem is that she never comes to church. I started meeting with her back in August and the progress she's made since then is incredible. (Just have to get her to church now!) But it's all thanks to the Book of Mormon. We have helped her to start reading the Book of Mormon, and every time we meet with her she's happier and happier and has more interesting questions to ask us instead of just sitting there and listening. Of course the trick is to get her to church again, but we're working on it!

Mom had questions about our food. The water here is disgustingly dirty. The church pays for super duper nice water filters for our apartments. I've seen how much they retail for-- and believe me-- we have the best of the best. I never drank milk back home (did you forget I'm lactose intolerant?) but I've started to kind of drink it here with my lactase pills. I get the 0.5% fat but the "usual" milk people use is 3% or 4% fat. I finally found soy milk but it's soooo expensive. More than $2 for a little juice box size. Fruit and vegetables are super expensive because we live in the middle of a city, but they were pretty cheap in August when I came because it was seasonal. Of course that was forever ago, so I don't remember exactly, but the prices have about doubled since August.

Life is great here. We're doing some great work with less-actives. One lady has come to church three Sundays in a row and promised to come next week as well! This last Sunday we had a spiritual thought with her and her 10 year old daughter (not baptized) about prayer. It was a really good lesson and her daughter really needed to hear about it. Even though this lady has been a member for a really long time, she has raised her daughter without religion, and it's very sad. This member is really starting to realize what a mistake she made and during the lesson she said "this is all my fault". I think her daughter is really the reason that she's starting to become active. It's amazing the difference in children when they've been raised in the church or when they haven't (here the difference is startling). 

Well this is going to be an interesting rest of the transfer with a mini-missionary. Not really sure what to expect, but I'm excited! Most importantly, the Lord is with us and that's all that counts. I hope life is swell back in the US and thanks for the Olympic medal count (heard that USA beat Russia in hockey on Saturday....no one here took that real well).

Have a great week! I love all of you. :)

Lots of love,

Sister Brown

(who is now 20 years old.....how weird)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dear Family,

I'm glad to hear that you're all doing so well. I hope you all received the February Liahona because guess what? It's about Russia! I love Russia. 

This is my last week of being a teenager (yes, I'm reminding you that my birthday is on Sunday!) and also Valentine's Day. I love any and all holidays that include candy, so of course I'm looking forward to Valentine's this year. Jesus is my Valentine. :)

Something funny, a couple weeks ago when you emailed to say that the family had finished reading the Book of Mormon together, it was pretty cool because that morning, I had finished reading it myself. It really cheered me up to hear that we had unknowingly finished the Book of Mormon at the same time!

This week was a great one when it comes to missionary work. Really. Sooooo many miracles happened this week. I'm never been a believer in "coincidences" or "accidents" and I feel even stronger about it now on my mission. Miracles really do happen.

 

Miracles in the life of Sister Brown this week:

One investigator finally decided to call us back after three months. We had an amazing and simple spiritual lesson about Jesus Christ with her (2 Nephi 25:26, 29).

We decided to stop by a less-active family at the last minute because we had time. I have only met with them once my whole time here. We get to the hallway in their apartment building but the door to their hallway is locked. We stood there for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do, then this lady walks out of the elevator and says "I hate when the doors are locked!" Apparently she works for a gas/electric company and was coming to check the gas/electricity of this family, so she calls them and the mom comes and opens the door and agrees to have a lesson with us! It's a miracle because they never pick up the phone, the domafon doesn't work, and we had a really amazing lesson with her. While we were in Dioma, we decided to stop by one of our "former" investigators (she never officially stopped investigating, she just stopped picking up the phone or showing up for lessons). We went over there, and her husband (less-active) answered the domafon was really friendly and invited us on in. We had a really good lesson with the family, and we were able to learn more about how we can help them come closer to Christ. 

We made a companionship goal to tract one apartment building staircase (padezd) a week to try to find new investigators. Well, as I've said many many times, I absolutely hate tracting. If you just start to think about the concept of tracting, it should give you the creeps. (And.....what's behind door number 2?? nobody's home! hurray!) Anyway, last night (Sunday) we were debating, should we attempt tracting again to fulfill our weekly goal? We decided to, and I kid you not-- it was a miracle! It was a really nice padezd we chose with lights that worked, beautiful artwork on the walls, and it didn't smell funny. All the people were really nice to us even if they weren't interested in meeting with us and then we met a man about 60 years old and really nice. He was really interested in the Book of Mormon and believes that Jesus went and taught in Egypt after he was resurrected (but the man is a Muslim....I don't understand how people classify themselves religiously here...). His whole family are Christians, and Sister Fedas and I were just really excited to find him. Our branch needs families!We've been working with a less-active in Dioma-- I think I mentioned her last week. Well, last Sunday she randomly came to church and that shocked us pretty bad. We had an English lesson with her and her daughter after the third hour, so this week when we were planning our lessons, we thought...."hm...coming to church would be a big motivator if we taught English after..." (we're 'tutoring' her daughter in English). Because of being in Finland, we were short on time this week, so we called her and said "Sorry, we really don't have time to meet with you this week in Dioma. The only time available is Sunday after church. Can you come?" Well, they came! That was a big miracle. It's been cool to watch this lady's faith grow more and more after six months of meeting with her. We gave her a spiritual thought and she really enjoyed it. We had an active member on the lesson with us who explained that even though she, the active member, wasn't raised in the church, she sees what a huge influence it has on youth and development. It was such a solid testimony and just what the member needed to hear. We didn't even have time to tell the active member about the less active member before the lesson, so that testimony was totally led by the spirit. 

Unfortunately while on my visa trip (I LOVE FINLAND!) my hat was lost, but I was able to buy another one back in Russia for the equivalent of $3. What a bargain! And a miracle. It's a nice purple hat (I miss my grey one!) but it's a nice change. I figure some homeless person in Ekat probably needed my hat more than I did. 

Our English group here is more focused on "conversational English", so each week we have a different discussion topic that somehow relates to Preach My Gospel. This week's topic was "leaders" (sometimes a difficult topic in a post-communist country). We stayed away from politics, luckily, but that is an English group that I will never forget. I wrote several pages in my journal about it later because some very profound things were said in regards to leaders, what makes you a leader, and the last point of discussion-- how our leaders give us rights and privileges and that determines our equality or not. I really just wanted to go cry in the bathroom after that discussion, but I held it together. Times like this I just really love and miss America. 

Some thing cool that I've been doing is going through Preach My Gospel and highlighting (in green!) every promise that is made there. A couple of zone conferences ago, President really emphasized how Preach My Gospel was written by prophets and so it is scripture. One of the sister trainers told me she did that, and I thought it was a really cool idea. It's cool to find promises in the scriptures anyway, so I think I'm going to go through and highlight them (in green!) also. There are so many promises in PMG made to missionaries-- if you work hard, you won't be home sick. If you talk to everyone, you'll have someone to teach. If you live as best as you can, you'll live with God again. It's so cool to read these basic Gospel principles and have my testimony of them be strengthened again and again from experiences. It always brings Primary Songs to my head, honestly. Primary Songs are definitely where my testimony began to grow. All the basic truth taught in those songs will never be able to leave my mind (and also, I just love music!)

Whenever I hear the song of a bird

Or look at the blue, blue sky

Whenever I feel the rain on my face

Or the wind as it rushes by......

I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world 

Heavenly Father created for me.

or

I'm trying to be like Jesus

I'm following in his way

I'm trying to love as He did 

in all that I do and say

at times I am tempted to make a wrong choice

but I try to listen as the still small voice whispers

Love one another as Jesus loves you

try to show kindness in all that you do

be gentle and loving in deed and in thought

for these are the things Jesus taught

or 

Jesus came to John the Baptist

in Judea long ago

and was baptized by immersion

in the River Jordan's flow

"To fulfill the law" said Jesus

when the Baptist questioned why

"and to enter with my Father

in the kingdom up on high"

or 

faith is like a little seed, if planted it will grow

Well, I love all of you and I hope you have a fantastic week-- really. I pray for all of you everyday. Thanks for all the support that you have for me-- the emails, the letters, the packages, the prayers, the pictures-- they all help me. I miss you, and I love you, but I'm helping do the Lord's work here in Russia. I LOVE YOU.

Sister Brown

Finland!

Hey, so I totally forgot to send my email to y'all last week, but things are peachy keen over here in Russia. This last week the lowest temperature here was -34 C, and it really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but it was pretty dang bad! You go outside and you turn into a human Popsicle in about 10 min.

Of course I had a visa trip on Monday, and that was crazy! We took a plane to Ekat on Sunday night, and I had an awful sleep that night on an air mattress. I woke up at 4:30 am to catch my plane to Helsinki and it was an awesome reunion with Sister Smith and the Elders from my MTC district who are serving in this mission. We hung around in the Helsinki airport awaiting our flight to St. Petersburg. 

Finland is awesome! Everyone is tall, blonde, blue-eyed, skinny, and beautiful! (at least the ones in the airport!) We got an airport breakfast that was really delicious, and I ate a Caesar salad. They don't have "lettuce" salads in Russia, so that was my first one in about six months! We met the whole Finnish Olympic Ski team, so that was super duper cool (they were on our flight to Russia of course!). I bought some delicious Karl Fazer chocolate (well-known amongst the missionaries here thanks to the abundance of visa trips to Finland). Unfortunately by the time we got to St. Petersburg, due to the unfortunate lay-out of the airport there (3 terminals only accessible by bus), we missed our flight to Ekat by 20 minutes, so we got to bum around that airport for nine hours! We all went to Starbucks and ordered hot chocolate. I was first and the name I had them put on it was "Brown". Then was Elder White, so he had them put "White" and then the rest of the missionaries just chose random colors and had that be their names and the staff at Starbucks thought it was pretty dang hilarious. Also, we ran into a couple members of the Canadian Ski Team and talked to them about the Church as well (look out for Amanda and Brittney!) In the end of it all, we flew into Ekat at 3:00 am on Tuesday morning, slept three hours then left on our flight to Ufa. I'm running on three hours of sleep, and I feel surprisingly well (it might be because of the Finnish chocolate helping me....but who knows!) 

Things have been going great here in Ufa, and it's so awesome to have served here so long and know all the members super well. There's a good chance that if I (ever) receive a transfer call that I may never return to this city. It's sad because I really do love it here, and coming back from my visa trip really felt like coming home. I can't wait to sleep in "my" bed tonight!

At our zone meeting this week we talked about some of the problems that all of our companionships are facing, and we decided that all of our investigators need a makeover....or we just need new investigators! We talked about what to do, and we all really felt that a zone goal was needed to talk on transport more effectively and frequently. So we made a goal to at least attempt a conversation that will segue into the gospel on every transport, and so far, I'm at 100%, including the transport (airplanes) on my visa trip! We made that goal Saturday afternoon and that evening within about five minutes of each other, Sister Fedas and I each had a street lesson each (taught two Gospel principles, gave out a Book of Mormon, and received a number) and also one more Sunday morning before church. If we hadn't opened our mouths, we would not have received three more numbers of people that are interested in learning about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ! How cool is that. I really felt like that was a huge boost and motivator to keep us at 100% as a companionship even though we weren't in Ufa for a couple of days. Who knows how many more street lessons we'll be able to have this week because of that inspired goal! I'm excited for all the new investigators we're going to get!

One of the big miracles of the week was at church on Sunday. After fast and testimony meeting, I was able to look around at who had been in the congregation-- whoa! A less-active that we have been working with for SIX WHOLE MONTHS came to church all by herself. We invite her every time we meet with her, but this is the first time she's come in almost an entire year. She stayed for all three hours and even brought her child with her. Sister Fedas and I were in total shock because who would've known that she would come? It was a miracle!

I don't have much more to say, but I love you all! I'm still a happy, sappy missionary, and I still really love Russia. My health is fine, so don't worry about me :)

Have a great week!

Sister Brown

Letter from Mission President

Karen and I were concerned about an incident that happened at the chapel in Ufa.  Catie said that three very similar looking SUVs were parked on the stairs leading to the church, almost completely blocking the entrance.  As the missionaries approached the church, the vehicles would start (remotely) and the engines would rev.  Because of recent bombings in Russia, previous threats to the church in Ufa, and the upcoming Olympics and possible threats, I decided to contact the mission president.  He allayed most of our concerns and also included a nice note about Catie, shown below.  Blaine Brown. 

Sister Christensen and I love Sister Brown very much.  She is an outstanding missionary who has managed expertly and maturely the challenges of training a Ukrainian Sister who has not had the same kind of training and seasoning in the Church that Sister Brown has had.  She speaks Russian amazingly fluently for the short time she has been here.  She is loved and respected by other missionaries.  I want you to know how fortunate and blessed I feel to have her serving with us.

 

Thank you for your prayers and support.   I assure you that Sister Brown is in the safest part of Russia, in a very safe city and has a very wise, experienced zone leader.  Our missionaries’ safety and security is of paramount importance to us every day.

 

Thank you for raising and preparing such an incredible missionary. We are so blessed to have her serving in our mission.

 

President Christensen

February in Ufa

Dear Family,

What a week. It has been steadily getting colder and colder and the tail end of this week was -25 C as the HIGH. It was freezing. I've never been so cold even though I was wearing: fur lined boots, two pairs of tights, wool socks, a thick skirt, undershirt, shirt, sweater, jacket, puffy down coat, scarf, hat, and double-lined mittens. Freezing. Our cheeks were bright red and it hurt to breathe. I love Russia, but why does it have to be so cold here?

We had kind of a funny experience teaching a less-active old lady (she's less active because she's old and can't walk very well). We taught her the Word of Wisdom, which you wouldn't think would be a problem for a long-time member. But it was a really good lesson because she had a ton of questions about the Word of Wisdom that I was able to answer! When teaching this, I find it helpful to mention the Law of Moses and how it wasn't always on the Earth either. Also, it's really good to point out that the laws of the land change because times change and people change. But the laws are here NOW to protect us NOW, even if they weren't there 70 years ago. It was a really good lesson, and I was so glad that I had thought of questions like that earlier, found the answers, and was able to answer her accurately. She committed to live the Word of Wisdom!

It's been kind of crazy with the other sisters gone (only 6 missionaries in Ufa now) because we inherited their investigators and all the female members in that area. Now our area is gigantic! We officially work with at least one person in every one of the four areas of the city. Lots of bus rides ahead of us!

We've been busy, busy, busy lately, and I love weeks like that. You blink, and it's over. We've been doing a lot of work with less-actives (as it has been the last six months...) and that requires a lot of time and careful planning. Even though I've been in this area for the last six months, I was able to meet with three different people whom I have never before met this last week. A miracle when it comes to planning. 

One of these ladies lives in Dioma. We're there maybe once or twice a week, so it's hard to "regularly" meet with people. We called her and she gave us a long list of reasons about why she was busy and unable to meet. We decided to stop by anyway, just in case she was home. Their domafon doesn't work and the door that leads to the hallway of apartment doors is always locked. But that day, the door to the building was open, the door to the hallway was open, and we knocked on the door and the whole family was home! We had intended to just drop off a Liahona, but we ended up having a lesson with the mom and the son. It was such a miracle. We felt super blessed to have had that experience.

I really like the focus in our mission on the Book of Mormon. Everyday I realize more and more why it is so important to us and to the building up of the kingdom of God. Really. We always try to use it on lessons with people, whether it is to share stories or just verses. The Book of Mormon is really powerful, and I'm glad that everyday I learn more and more about it's importance. 

I really love Russia, and I'm really loving my mission. I'm learning things out here that I definitely couldn't be learning anywhere else in the world. I'm learning about myself, other cultures, relationships with leaders, relationships with companions, how to serve unselfishly, how to work tirelessly, and most of all, I think I'm learning how to rely on other people and especially on God.

It's been a really great experience for me to be in Ufa. I love the members like my family, and I love the missionaries here like my family. The work we do is amazing, and I'm glad that I have a chance to take part in it. 

Missionary work requires a lot of problem-solving and being able to problem-solve long-term, short-term and also (most importantly) immediately in the moment. A lot of situations happen when someone calls you and you have to immediately plan a lesson or cancel a lesson or find someone else to meet with and what transport to get there. It can be really stressful, but I've found that I'm actually quite good at problem-solving in a jiffy. A lot of the less-active stop-bys with whom we were able to make contact happened because we had to come up with back-up plan C (which was them) and they were home. A speaker in the MTC said "never second-guess if a prompting you receive is from God or just from you. A football player doesn't question when he receives guidance from his coach in a game because he's in a game and of course that guidance will help him perform better." That's why it's important to learn the voice of the Lord and then just immediately respond to promptings like that.