Wahoo!

Dear Family,

How can it be P-day again? I don't understand how time flies so quickly here. I'm going to type as quickly as possible so please excuse my grammar and spelling and whatnot.

This week was crazy!! It was the last week of the transfer, so that was the cause of celebration. I scratch each transfer off of my calendar. It's a motivational countdown until I'm home. Sister Galli and Sister Whitney fly out tomorrow, so that was kind of sad saying goodbye to them. Sister Fedas and I will be the only sisters in our zone next transfer.

We were supposed to have zone meeting earlier this week and right before that my winter boots kind of exploded as we were going out the door. The whole sole came off of one of the shoes. So I took it into a shoe fixing place. I was wearing my Nordstrom boots and the zipper totally broke really bad to the point that I couldn't even get the boot off my foot. I was freaking out because we had to work but right at that moment, the repair guy called and said my other boots were fixed. So I just went in and traded boots essentially. He had to stab the zipper attachment thing off with a screwdriver and a hammer. But at the end of it all, I now have two pairs of functional boots again. Huzzah!!!

The Sister Trainers came this week, and I really love when they come because it's always a nice mental break. It was kind of weird timing though because they came right before English Group so my splits just ended up being English Group teaching. The next day was zone conference, and I've never been so happy to see other missionaries! I feel like I've been in this zone forever (oh wait... I have!!) that it's really refreshing to meet and talk to different people. The Chelyabinsk zone came as well as the Assistants and President Christensen and his wife. We had a really great zone conference on Friday, and it was super spiritual. It's been a while since President has been down to Ufa so he was super busy with interviews. He didn't actually have enough time to interview my whole zone because of his tight schedule. I was able to get an interview with him though. It was great! He is the smartest, kindest, most generous person that I have ever met in my entire life. 

We had a really great lesson this week with our new investigator. She's 50-something, and super involved with the Orthodox church and all that here. But she recognizes that it's not 100% correct in all that it does. Our last lesson with her (a couple of weeks ago) didn't go as well as we planned because she didn't really understand why we think our church has "permission" from God and why that's important to do ordinances and stuff. Well, we decided to focus our lesson just on that, and it was the most beautiful lesson! She really listened to us and seemed to agree with everything we said. Even the opening prayer she asked to know if the Book of Mormon is true (and we didn't even ask/remind her to). We read 3 Nephi 11 with her and talked about it (she thought it was taken from the Bible originally) and we talked about what the word "Gospel" means and why it was important that Jesus gave specific people the power or "permission" to baptize and bless the sacrament. That's when she really started to understand. We then shared with her John 10:16 and talked about what it means to be the "other sheep" (we also explained that other churches explain it to mean the Gentiles) and we showed her 3 Nephi 15:21 and talked with her about how it clarifies what's written in the Bible. By the end of the lesson, she totally understood our lesson, and said that she believes that Jesus came to the American continent. I was so happy to hear that! Teaching that lesson, I had such clarity of mind. That lesson was led by the spirit. 

We actually had another really cool lesson this week. Another investigator told us she was going to be out of town for three months on an internship, but apparently it's not as far away as she led us to believe because we had a meeting with her! We answered some of her questions from the Bible (how was Jesus born of the Spirit, etc.) and turned it into a really good lesson about how prayers are answered in different ways than we expect sometimes but that they're always answered. I shared about how even though I always prayed for Steve's cancer to go away, and I was so mad when it didn't, the experience was able to bring our family together and helped us rely and appreciate each other a lot more. 

Being a missionary is probably the coolest thing in the world. Sometimes I feel like a mailman (mailwoman?) dropping off Liahona's to less actives, sometimes I feel like the police when we demand why people don't come to church, sometimes I feel like a chef when we drop off cookies to someone, sometimes I feel like a professional eater when every meeting that day people prepared a meal for us (it happened this week!), and sometimes I feel like a scaredy cat who lives in Russia and hands out information about a church. My courage definitely has grown on my mission. It's scary talking to people about religion, but it's really rewarding when it's something they want to talk to you about. 

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that life is all going splendid for you. I have confidence that by the time I'm home from my mission maybe dad will have finished building his solar collectors on our roof. Those stories make me laugh like crazy. And yes mom, I brush my teeth with the prescription toothpaste. I have nightmares about all my teeth gradually getting crooked and falling out and then I look like everyone else here. Those nightmares encourage me to brush, brush, brush and wear my retainers!!

Have a great week and know that I love you!

Always your favorite missionary,

Sister Brown

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Dear Family,

What a great week! The weather in Ufa is sunny and warm, and the snow is even starting to melt! I know it's only January, but I'm really starting to look forward to Spring. Too bad spring is another two months away!

This week was really an interesting one. About a month ago, I street-taught a man who was unusually interested in the history of the Book of Mormon. Sometimes it's hard to tell if people are being sarcastic in instances like that, but he wasn't! We were able to get ahold of him and have a meeting, and he's honestly searching for God. He read bits and pieces of the Book of Mormon already, and didn't understand it as well as he liked to, so he wants to read it with us assisting him in his comprehension. I love when people take sincere interest in things that are important to me like the Book of Mormon. It makes it way easier to teach them. He's never prayed before but was open to trying.

We got transfer calls this week, and I'm going to be in Ufa! It's official, it will be my fifth transfer in the same city. That's a long time! I love being here, and the branch here has already felt like family for a long time. I did a musical number on Sunday, "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief," and lemme tell you-- people cried! I'm not a concert pianist in any sense, but I'm glad I pulled it together. It's funny how I'm wayyy less nervous to play the flute than the piano. That's definitely because I've had more opportunities for flute performance, so I'm trying to equal it out on the piano on my mission as well. I get so nervous, but it's always a good feeling after.

It's amazing that now that the holidays are over, how much more available people are to meet with us! We had practically a straight month of no investigator meetings, but the last two weeks it has increased a ton! We had three investigator meetings this week, and there would have been five if we hadn't been stood up on two lessons. I hadn't realized it, but I've missed teaching investigators. It was a sad month without seeing anyone.

We've been doing a lot of less-active work among the members. Even though sometimes being a member takes a lot of effort, positive thinking, and will-power, it's always easier in the long-term to be an active-member of the Church. It's funny because now that I've been focusing on that, I've been finding way more examples of that in the Book of Mormon (Alma "re-activating" Amulek) and then Aminidab (Helaman 5) being re-converted. Of course there's way more examples than that too. Especially in the Doctrine and Covenants as well.

It's just interesting to me because I really feel that if we work with the less-actives a lot, they'll get activated, we'll get referrals, we'll get investigators, and then we'll get baptisms. In the MTC they told us that our Area Book (the huge binder where we keep the progress records of investigators, potential lists, former investigator info, etc) is a really valuable and under-used tool. I agree 100%.

I really feel like most of the work in this area has already been done, and it's just a matter of working through the area book and getting people to meet with us again. They were placed in the missionary's path once, so it's about time for them to be placed in our path again! Of course we go contacting and stuff (yay, being outside in the snow for hours and hours!), but we've been able to get more meetings recently out of our area book than working outside on the street.

Anyway, if we reactive people and get them to bring their families and friends into the church, that will accelerate the work here so much. Gathering Israel is tough business, but when we have support and help, it gets a lot easier!

Because of communism and wars, there is only a certain percentage of people here that are willing to listen to anything about God. That's definitely a complicated and delicate situation to deal with, but it's everywhere here. Russia is a tough egg to crack, but it's definitely coming! It's interesting how when people have trials in life, they either turn towards God or they turn away. And I guess ultimately, that's going to be how we're judged.

We were never meant to live this life alone-- that's why we have families. It's impossible to return to God all by yourself (someone has to baptize you). We were supposed to rely on other people, and God, while in this life. You just have to be humble enough to rely on others. I don't know if that train of thought makes sense, but it's been something that I've been thinking about recently. The importance of other people in our life. It's really cool!

"And now... thou art in thy youth, and therefore, I beseech of thee that thou wilt hear my words and learn of me; for I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day" -- Alma 36:3.

So now let me just finish my email to y'all by saying, I love you! I'm so glad that you're my family, and that we were put in each others lives to live and learn from each other. Thanks so much for supporting me in all that I've done and all that I continue to do. I sure love you.

I know this church is true, and I'm so glad for the opportunity to serve a mission at this time. It's a very special time, and I know that by "small and simple means are great things brought to pass" and even though I sometimes feel like a small, insignificant missionary-- there are 80,000 others out there  all working with a common goal. It's really cool to be a part of the Gathering of Israel. It's really humbling to help serve the Lord in this unique way. How cool is that? The church is true. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. "I know it, I live it, and I love it!"

Have a fantastic week. I pray for you everyday.

Love always,

Sister Brown

Happy Five Months in Country to Me!

Well, happy five months in country to me today! Yesterday I hit my "seven months on a mission" mark. I really like these landmarks because they give me something to look forward to and celebrate! Hooray! Also, I'm pleased to report that I come home this year. Hooray!

Well, I'm sorry to report that Ufa is not as cold as some parts of the United States right now-- but that's fine by me! Because it's been cold and all that jazz, the ice sculptures have blossomed everywhere. I sent some pictures last week. They have erected ice mazes, ice people, ice slides, etc. It's funny because in America we have "water slides" but here, they're made of ice. They're gigantic. Some of them are at least two stories high and children just slide all the way down. It's pretty neat to watch.

I enjoy winter, but at the same time, I don't like it being six months of the year either.

We had a substantial number of meetings this week despite the fact that we were indoors for two days. We had 12 total lessons, which I consider a miracle, three of which were with investigators (another miracle). All  three investigators were investigators that we have never met with before (one investigator has been out of town since August, the other is a former investigator, and the other is a potential investigator). That's seriously a miracle because New Year's is suchhhh a big holiday here. The whole city shut down and we just watched people out the window sometimes. Comical. I also took a two-hour nap (that was an accident) and we updated our area book and area map (tedious, but needed work). New Year's EVE was great. As a zone, we cooked a bunch of food, and we watched "It's A Wonderful Life," which I thoroughly enjoyed. Some of the parts were a little too much for us missionaries (the bathrobe/bush scene) and we all awkwardly looked in other directions. Oh, how being a missionary has changed us all!

Dad reminded me about the SNL clip of the "alternate" ending to "It's a Wonderful Life." Totally forgot about that-- hilarious. I baked some delicious apple crisp that the whole zone LOVED. I was very impressed with it too. We remembered the night before at 10 pm that we were supposed to make a dessert and all we had was sugar, flour, apples, and some other needed cooking ingredients. We whipped it together quick, and it was SOOOOO good. Wow. Maybe I'm turning into a cook on my mission. Who wants to send me to cooking school in Paris post-mission? :)

We had some very substantial miracles happen to us. Friday we were looking at our planners for Saturday. "Oh boy-- no meetings! And the forecast is -25!" We definitely did NOT want to be contacting all day. We called everyone HUMANLY possible, but unfortunately we were only able to get one solid meeting set up. We made plans for Saturday right after lunch to tear apart our area book (not literally) and call everyone we could. Well, we spent an hour doing this. We said a kneeling prayer together before and asked God to open up the hearts of people. Holy.Cow. It was incredible! We were able to set up a meeting for Saturday at 5 pm with a former investigator, so THAT was a miracle. We were also able to meet with that one potential investigator, too (another miracle!) We called one former investigator but he wasn't home and his son answered the phone and remembered missionaries and wanted to meet, so THAT was a miracle. It was awesome. All in all, we had a very successful weekend. We closed that planning session after lunch Saturday with a big prayer of thanks.

Anyway, we met with a former investigator. There were some really interesting things written about her on the progress record, but we called her because we thought it would be worthwhile. Well, we show up, and she has a full dinner set up for us. That was ANOTHER miracle because we ended up being so busy on Saturday that our planned time for dinner was from 8:50-9:00 pm. She cooked some delicious food. We said "Oh, we brought our own tea because we don't drink black tea" and she said "Oh, I already know all of your secrets!" It was kind of funny. We had an interesting lesson with her. Sister Fedas had no idea what to say, but I feel like I was totally led by the spirit. The lady has some objections to church doctrine, such as we eventually become gods and the fact that there is a mother in heaven. Rather than focusing on addressing these concerns, I just bluntly kept asking her questions: "Do you believe that God and Christ appeared to Joseph Smith?" "Do you believe that God has called another prophet today on the Earth to lead the people?" "Do you believe that Christ really came to the people on the American Continent?" It ended up instigating an very interesting discussion, and we were able to find out more about her than was written on her progress record. We think that there's hope for her to be baptized yet. I totally felt like it was guided by the spirit. It was awesome!

One of our other investigators is really great. Her dad is a Jehovah's Witness, so she knows the Bible really well. When we met with her this week, she had remembered a lot from meeting with missionaries back in the summer. She has already read from the Book of Mormon because these last several months we've texted her reading assignments while she's been out of town and she read them! That was really great. We had planned on teaching her the first lesson again, but when we got there she really wanted to rehear the Plan of Salvation. We had to think quick, but our companionship is capable so we handled it really well and used verses from the Book of Mormon to give her another perspective.

I really love Ufa and the branch here, but I feel in the next transfer or two that I will for sure be leaving. I will have spent over seven months here, and I really do love it. I'm so lucky to have been in the warmest city during the warmest winter! I thank God every day for that.

I seriously love being a missionary. It's so surreal and the time passes by quickly.

Have an amazing week, every single one of you.

Love,

Sister Brown!!!

Pictures!!!