Hermana Brown -- Arizona Mesa Mission: WEEK 4 -- Dia de Acción De Gracias!

Companion and I with the lights at the MTC

Hola Familia! Ah what a week! So many good things and Thanksgiving was awesome! And I can't believe we're already on our fourth week! Only two more to go till I'm in Arizona.

So on Sunday they finally didn't call "Hermana Brown" to speak, and that felt soooo nice. Haha, I'm sure my time will come though because a district is leaving this week. So my district will be the oldest in the zone! So that will be pretty exciting. But I honestly think our district does a great job of studying and staying on task. And our teachers keep telling us we're one of the best districts they ever had, and that we're progressing a doing really well. Which is really nice to hear. For the devo on Sunday, Stephen Allen talked to us, he does something at the MTC, but he was WAY funny! He talked about that while we're on our missions we need to leave everything else behind because we are one the Lord's time. He had some people get up and say something they gave up to be out here, and it's really incredible that around 1500 people put aside their past lives to come and serve the Lord. Something I'm really going to miss when I leave the MTC is the weekly devotionals. We also watched the Joseph Smith movie on Sunday. Which is definitely one of my favorites. He is just soooo amazing and the thing that I love the most about him is that he always glorified everything up to God, he would never take any credit for himself. Which is such a great example to me, but also really shows that there is no way he made any of it up.

Monday we had class and learned how to apply lessons more personally to our investigators.

Tuesday we were supposed to teach Viridiana, but she wasn't there. Which I was sad about because it was getting really fun to teach her. So instead we had to give our lesson over email in Spanish, which was a little difficult, because speaking it has come a long way, but writing it you have to get all the grammar and spelling and stuff, so hopefully we were able to get some sort of message across. But we found out we're not going to be teaching Viridiana anymore. :( We also taught Daniela on Tuesday and it went really well! We taught her on studying the scriptures and praying and the spirit was super strong.

For our devo on Tuesday we heard from Jorge Zabellos of the seventy! So similar to last week, he have 4 points to having a successful mission which were: 1) Live your purpose 2)Teach by the Spirit 3)Love the People 4)work diligently. It was interesting to compare those to the one from last week but all in all anything that comes from a general authority is amazing!

SO, this week me and my companion found out we made it for the Christmas banquet performance thing! We kind of lost hope because it had been a while since we auditioned and we hadn't heard anything. But I was sooooo glad we made it! It's really a privilege too because around 150 people tried out but on 40 people made it, 20 boys and 20 girls! So we are super lucky! But we had our first practice on Tuesday after the devo, and it was super fun! We get to sing a lot of Christmas songs, which are my absolute favorite. And we get to work with Brother Eggett, who is one of the directors of MOTAB and he directs a bunch of other choirs to, so it's such a privilege. I am also super blessed because before my mission I prayed that i would have performance opportunities on my mission, and I happen to be at the MTC at the right time to perform in this, and I get to be a part of the easter pageant when I get to Mesa! Honestly I am so blessed and Heavenly Father really does hear and answer every prayer, when we're obedient.

On Wednesday I got my families package! it seriously mad my day! all your cards were the best, and the book of pictures is perfect! Especially Zuri... haha! I could not ask for a better family.

On Thursday it was Dia de Acción De Gracias!!! Honestly one of the best Thanksgivings ever. So in the morning we had a devotional with... ELDER DALLIN H OAKS!!! And the rest of his family too! It was such an amazing experience. My personal favorite part of the devotional was that we got to hear Jenny Oaks Baker!!! She is sooooooo amazing. I loved hearing her play but also watching her because she was so into the music. She played with other members of the Oaks family too, and they are all very musically talented. Elder Oaks gave a great talk though. He talked about weak things becoming strong. Which was really good because you can get pretty hard on yourself here with learning a new language, teaching "investigators", etc.

After the devo we had a Thanksgiving luncheon and it was really good! We got turkey, real mashed potatoes (usually we get the fake instant mashed potatoes), pumpkin pie and ice cream. It was sooooo good! But after lunch we had another devo with the people who were running the service project. We heard from one guy who is a member of the church, then one who wasn't, but you could still tell he had a religious background. It was interesting as the mood changed when they each spoke, because the nonmember still said good things but the spirit was just so different when each of them spoke.

After that we got to watch "17 Miracles" which is such an amazing movie and very appropriate for Thanksgiving. Really allows us to remember how fortunate we are to be in the situation and the things we have.

So for dinner we had PB&J. Which most people were sad about but my companion and I loved it because at least for me it reminded me of home. And it was nice to have a less grande meal for once. But after dinner we got to do our service project! We made lentile casseroles for kids in Utah. The time literally flew by. And not to brag, but my table got the record for the day with 23 boxes! And each bos had 383 meals in it. Then later they told us that the whole MTC made 357,000 meals total! That's A LOT of food! They also told us they've never made that many before at the MTC. I was so glad I got to participate in such an amazing project.

At the end of the day they had a talent show sort of thing and showed little Thanksgiving clips. Then the MTC presidency were the first to wish us a merry Christmas. And they now have Christmas lights turned on at the MTC! I had such a great Thanks giving here, and although i wasn't with my family, I still loved it! Best thanksgiving for sure.

Just want to close the email and say I'm so grateful to be here in the MTC learning Spanish and learning and teaching about the gospel. I wouldn't want or can even think of a better place to be. I am soooo grateful for my family and friends for being so supportive and always being there for me. I could not be here if it weren't for all of you! I'm so grateful for this church and this gospel and that I'm an active member of the greatest work there is. This gospel is one of the greatest things on the earth, and its capabilities are way beyond my knowledge and capacity to learn, but it works. And finally I am grateful for my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and because of His atoning sacrifice we can be forgiven of our sins, and be able to live with him again. He is always standing right next to us in hard times, and because of the atonement, we are able to lean on Him and rely on Him in any time of need.

Thank you everyone for your letters and emails. I know I say this every week but i absolutely ove hearing from everyone, and I never can get enough of it. Love you all and I am so very grateful for all of your support!

Con Amor, Hermana Brown