Hermana Brown -- Arizona Mesa Mission: WEEK 76: I'm feeling 22...

So some of the elders decided to be mean and count how many days I have and tell me so if you didn't know I come home in 22 days. It's kind of scary, exciting, weird, and a whole lot of emotions going on. I really love the mission and Mesa and it's going to be really hard to leave this place! If i could stay longer I would, but that's not an option sooooo yeah. Today we went to Krazy Air (trampoline park) as a zone and it was SUPER fun. I'm just really tired now. And I've been tired all week. It's been a busy one because of Easter pageant and everything.

The Easter pageant is soooooooo good! We watched it 4 out of the 5 nights this week. 2 of them we were working the other two we brought our investigator Ernesto, and the less active from Brasil, Ruti. It's honestly so cool to watch it, and see the story of Christs life being portrayed every night especially before Easter! I will send you pictures of the pageant so you know how real it actually is. I personally think it's the best pageant the church puts on. On Tuesday night we were scheduled to work and before we go out to talk with the people we attend the cast devotional which only lasts about 30 minutes, for every one they pick a missionary to share "missionary minute" with the cast and they picked me that night! It was such a cool experience. I honestly still get nervous about talking in front of big groups of people and the cast for the Easter pageant is 501 people. But for some reason I wasn't nervous at all in front of them. I don't know if it's because they're all performers or what. But I decided to share 2 Nephi 32:9 which is a scripture we picked as the theme for our Savior of the World performance one year, it says, "But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul." I love this scripture because anything we do, I especially relate This to the talents and gifts we've been given, should be consecrated to the Lord. Meaning, we should use anything we've been given to serving the Lord. This scripture has definitely had a big meaning to me, and especially now that I'm on a mission I really know what it means to consecrate something to the Lord. This scripture really came in handy too in our guitar class this week. We shared it as well and everyone really enjoyed it.

Oh yeah, HAPPY EASTER!!! I hope you all had a wonderful day thinking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and celebrating that He lives! Isn't that such a glorious knowledge? He was crucified, died, and resurrected so that all of us can have that same gift of being resurrected too, for free! I was reading the events of the Holy Week in my studies this week and in the last chapter of John he tells the story of when Jesus asks Simon Peter three times the question, "lovest thou me more than these?" And basically what is learned from the story is that we need to follow Jesus Christ and show Him that we love him. In the other three gospels, this story is not told but more of a commandment or what they learned from this story saying, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." There are many ways we can serve God, however, as Jesus told to Peter three times we need to "Feed His sheep." I believe we all know how it feels to be hungry, and we would never wish that upon another person. So feed them with the glorious news of the gospel! Jesus is always with us and will help us through and through. I have a testimony of this. In the mission there are many times when I feel tired, discouraged, depressed, unmotivated, bored, wanting to do something else, and so on. These are all normal feelings but they can be overcome through the help of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. But the first thing we need to do is act and try and he will then give us the necessary strength to continue on. I love you all so much and I am so grateful to be a be able to share my testimony with you every week. Know that I pray for you all constantly and fervently and that God loves you and wants to help you! Have a great week!

Hermana Brown