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