DO NOT IGNORE GOD.‏

Sister Jenkins is such an amazing companion. 

A couple mornings ago, she made me a giant banana pancake for breakfast.

We had a hard day this week. When we got home from working that night, we stuck out feet in the bath tub and scrubbed them with hot water! They were tired from all the walking, so it was nice to relax and sit down for a few minutes.

We also listened to an excellent John Bytheway talk that I love! It's called "No-Brainers" Five hard decisions that the Gospel makes easy. Here is a little excerpt about what the CD is about! I recommend it to anyone - especially youth :)

The world has a hard time saying "no" to certain temptations. But the gospel turns many tough choices into "no-brainers." Satan seeks to hide consequences or to convince people that there are no consequences at all for choices.

The gospel blows away the "DUM" clouds ("DUM" means "Dark Underlying Mists") and makes consequences clear.

John Bytheway examines the consequences of choices facing young people today. With stories, scriptures, and statements from Church leaders, he shows that living the gospel is the smartest thing anyone can do! The gospel teaches us to say "yes" to good friends, "no" to drugs and alcohol, "no" to pornography, "no" to immorality, "yes" to repenting, coming to Christ, and enjoying a life of peace and happiness. It really is a "no-brainer"!

And you know what. It's so true.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ makes bad men good and good men better.

What a blessing in MY life... to grow up in the gospel. To learn to say no to things that REALLY DO NOT MAKE ME HAPPY.

Why do we think it is okay to ignore God?

We see this over and over again throughout the scriptures. People seek for worldy and temporary happiness.... but it never works out, does it?

Why do we ignore HIM and think it is okay for us to do things by ourselves, and that "a little bit won't hurt" and I'm just going to leave my standards for 5 minutes, I'll be right back.

It never works.

What peace it brings to leave it all at the saviors feet, and give your life to him! He knows us perfectly... and what a blessing it is that we can always repent. We can be ETERNALLY HAPPY!

Well I got some more puppy therapy this week, here's a picture capturing the moments!

Sophie - the white one - got adopted by a member in our ward here! She is SO cute.

I have to share an experience that I had yesterday.

This is more about NOT IGNORING GOD.

Well Sister Jenkins and I went tracting yesterday - walking and knocking on doors.

Sometimes tracting is intimidating because you are talking to complete strangers and asking if they will let you in their house to share a message about Jesus Christ's restored gospel with them.

Well here we are.... walking down the street.

I see out of the corner of my eye... a couple sitting outside smoking, and think that maybe we should go talk to them. Because we should talk with everyone we meet about Jesus Christ!

But I ignored God... and decided not to go talk to them. I wasn't in the "mood" to. Oh man sometimes I am so selfish!

Well we keep walking and I start feeling a little guilty. And in my mind I promised Heavenly Father that if the couple were still there when we were walking back, I would talk with them.

SO we keep going. Door after door closes in our face.... dogs chase us... we drop our purses for a minute and play some basketball with about 15 black kids.... Great image right? 2 white girls in dresses dropping our bags to run and ball it up for 10 minutes. After we were done, we wiped the sweat off our brows, and passed out pictures of Jesus to all the kids.

Someday those kids will remember the girls who played ball with them, and maybe let the missionaries they meet teach them about the gospel!

I really believe that NO effort is wasted.

Okay. SO we didn't really meet anyone super interested in our message. A nice lady let me borrow some bug spray because she saw my legs... they are pitiful from all the bugs!

Well it got dark, and we decided to walk back to our bikes.

I look across the street... and the couple is still there.

Okay okay.... I will go talk to them.

So across the street we went.

We introduce ourselves, and all the sudden a SMILE lit up on their faces! We told them the message we are sharing about Christ's restored gospel - restored to the earth through a living prophet! Oh they were so excited!

We told them about the Book of Mormon... what it is and where it came from.

After sharing all this in a few minutes with them, the lady turned to us and said

"I believe every word you say!"

I told her how we were going to pass them by, because I ignored my prompting from God, and she looked at me with tears in her eyes and told us that they had gone inside after we walked past them the first time, but they had just came back out about ten minutes ago.

She said God must have known we would come back and he wanted her to listen to our message!

Tears filled my eyes as I realized how receptive and happy these good people were to hear our message. And I almost passed them by! Thank goodness that the Lord is good and had them go back outside so that I could keep my promise I made God!

The guy said he has had mormon friends over the years and it was so good to hear what our message is, and that it all makes PERFECT sense to him. He wanted to know who the Prophet for the world is today and where he lives... They were asking wonderful questions!!!

They were so excited and asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon. We gladly lent it to them.

And although we had to ride our bikes back home in the complete darkness, I knew God would keep us safe and that he wanted me to be able to strengthen my testimony that night.

It sure was. I know that God hears our prayers. I know that we should not ignore Him! He truly does know what he is doing! I have such a love for the scriptures, the History they contain and the wonderful ability to freely worship God in our country!

I am so thankful to be on a mission! My life is changed every day as I witness first hand miracles before my eyes!

I love you!

Love, Sister Brown