Times Are Changing!

Dear Family,

Well, hey! What a wonderful week in Ekaterinburg it was this week. It was either blazing hot or pouring rain. We had a wonderful zone conference (Ekat 1, Tyumen, and Kurgan missionaries), and I found out..... I'm going to be sister trainer next transfer! My companion is Sister Whitlock (we were in the MTC together but different zones), and we'll have a lot of work cut out for us. I go over to President's this afternoon for a rundown of my job description, and then I'm off to work Wednesday. I'm super excited and a little nervous. It's going to be a big load of stress, but it will be really good for me I think. The sisters travel to all the cities (one a week) to go on splits with the sisters there and assist in training, etc. I'll let you know how I feel next week!!

This last week in our area was incredible, especially totaling our counts in the end of it all. We have successfully doubled all of our numbers since the transfer before I came, and it made me really happy to see a visual representation of the improvement that has been done here. The work is progressing! I really believe that I have left this area "stronger than when [I] found it" (PMG chp. 8), so I feel satisfied with all of the work that has been done. Most importantly, I think that I have instilled a good work ethic and attitude of diligence with my companion. I, of course, have also learned a LOT from Sister Hellewell.

We had a miraculous family home evening with two actives, a potential, and one less active at the senior couple's apartment. It went amazingly! We had a dinner, ate dessert, then had a lesson about the restoration, and played Uno. It was wonderful because the two actives were able to bear strong testimony (one of them has recently returned from inactivity) and could bear testimony about how the Gospel has worked wonders in their family. The potential investigator's face just lit up during the whole thing, and when we told her that she could have the Book of Mormon, she was super interested and kept asking questions about it. She loves reading books, so I'm super excited for her to read this one! She's the single mother of two kids, and I know that the Gospel will bless her family a lot. The less active at the lesson was also able to bear her testimony, we met with her later that week, AND she came to church on Sunday. Uh...wow!

This week we were able to go help at the garden of a crippled little old lady. It was super fun! We weeded a bunch and helped her cook and did lots of fun things. We took an electric train out of the city (just a couple of stations) and when we got off the train, we had no idea where to go, so we went and asked one of the other passengers where the garden was, and luckily (miraculously!) it happened to be her neighbor. Such a miracle because we never would have found it without her.

We've befriended a 15-year-old girl in the branch that has been having some struggles recently. She really loves us and looks up to us, but the problem is is that she looks up to and has lots of other awful examples in her life. She's definitely hit her "15-year-old rebellion" stage, and I think her mom is just lost and doesn't know what to do with her! Luckily, this girl trusts us a lot and loves being with us. We've been able to take her on lessons with us to less-actives and investigators several times, and she's been such a help. She knows that Gospel so well (she was baptized at age 8), but she's hitting the Utah problem of "I've been in the church my whole life, how do I know that it's true?" kind of thing. We spent all day with her Saturday (went to a baptism, ate lunch at Subway, then went to do service at a less-active's house), and she had so much fun with us! As we walk around and do things, we always try to sneak a little bit of Gospel in there for her. She really just needed friends this last month, and I'm so glad that we could be those friends for her. 

This has been the best transfer of my mission so far, and I'm so excited for the 3.5 transfers ahead of me! Can you believe how fast times flies? My release date is Dec. 9th.

I love you all, and I pray for you all the time. Remember that I love you a lot!

Love,

Sister Brown