Freaky Friday short update.

Honestly I am feeling pretty unmotivated to send out an update today! So
maybe that is Satan trying to get me not to! I will provide a quick update!

This sunday, Tommy Bingham who was recently baptized passed the sacrament
for the first time. He did a wonderful job and his grandmother wept tears
of joy watching her grandson turn into the righteous priesthood holder she
has always wanted him to be.
I have loved teaching the Bingham kids and have seen many miracles happen
with them over the last few months!
They are now sharing the gospel with all their friends and family!

I love this area and I have been working hard to contact some of the lost
sheep in our ward that people haven't seen for a while. We had some strange
experiences contacting some of them but in the end I was glad for it!
One man we called and he kept trying to ask us if we killed his sister! I
think he was crazy! We kept telling him we were from the church, but he was
like
"why are you asking for my information! Who are you!"
so in the end it ended okay but I honestly think he is skitzophrenic.

Tracting this week we also had someone answer the door telling us that he
had a gun and would shoot us if we didn't leave right away. People
shouldn't knock on other peoples doors.

I was like.... ONTO THE NEXT HOUSE!

Needless to say we ended that day with ice cream.

I know that as I strive to make my personal studies fulfilling, I find that
I am more confident throughout the day. Whether it be my desires to go
tracting, my ability to teach the doctrine, or even just filling out my
planner and the area book with the information I have gathered. I think
it's amazing how our whole days relate to our personal preparation.
I hope I can carry this skill into my home life.

Well that's all I really have to say for now. I LOVE missionary work! And I
love letters! Thank you for all who write me!
My address is
Sister Marissa Brown
175 Burnham Rd
Brandon Mississippi
39042

Thank you for your continued support and love!
xoxoxoxox Sister Brown

A Noble Calling Deserves A Noble Steed

Hey Everyone.

Life is good in Mississippi.

Can you believe I come home soonish? I DON'T LIKE TO THINK ABOUT IT.

This week has been exhausting.
I had the flu. So that was fun. I had to take a couple days of rest but jumped back into the work as soon as I felt up to it! We didn't have a ton of lessons this week which sometimes makes me feel bad, but I try not to feel guilty because I can't help being sick!

I think Heavenly Father knew my heart. As I was praying Sunday morning, I asked if God could please send some of our investigators to church today.

WELL what do you know. We had 6 current investigators show up, and a couple of people brought friends to church. I was so happy!

Sunday was also amazing because Bobby Harris, Tommy Bingham, and Josh Oliver have all been priesthood ordained.

Bobby and Tommy got baptized last month, and Josh we have been re-teaching because his family has been coming back to church after being gone for a while!

Josh even blessed the sacrament today and that was amazing because I remember the first time I knocked on their door and they have come so far from that moment and are looking forward so much to getting sealed in the temple as a forever family.

Although I may not have been able to teach a lot of lessons this week, I have just seen so much PROGRESS in the people I love. It is so fulfilling.

A miracle from the week.....

yesterday we were doing family home evening with our recent converts - the thomas family.

Well while we were teaching, somebody STOLE MY BIKE because we just parked them in the driveway like we always do.

I really have terrible luck, i'm telling yall.

We followed the bike trail and it led off to the main road... there were no other signs of where my bike could have gone.

But I made a police report so that they could be on the lookout.
The office looked at my nametag and said

"Oh I had friends from st. george Utah. I know how much you need your bike as a missionary."

I shed a tear at the loss of my noble steed.

Well just a few minutes ago, I recieved a call that my bike has been RETURNED. Right outside the house where it had been stolen.

A MIRACLE!!!!! HOORAY!

Jesus Loves me!

Well I saw a real live owl this week in a tree. That was really awesome.

Also on PDAY we got to play some beach volleyball with some of our friends. It was a blast and I love playing in the sand because i can dive for the balls and not mess up my knees very much!

Ashley and her dog Boudreaux have been helping take care of me while i'm sick!

Well that is pretty much it for this week, I have to get going today! I will have many stories next week i'm sure.

Love Yall.
Sister Brown

New Year Resolutions

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND GREETINGS FROM ME AND THE 1ST PRESIDENCY.

New Year Resolutions.
We all have them! We have all probably broken them! But we can all keep trying.
Some of mine for this year include:

~ finish the New Testament before I go home

~ deeper study of the word of wisdom and trying to live it joyfully. this includes morning exercising.

~ RUN TO THE FINISH LINE OF MY MISSION / BE AMAZING.

I tried not to make too many this year so that I can actually stick to the ones I have made.

Something I would like to challenge everyone to do is click the link below and take a short quiz! It's really awesome!------------>

http://beta.mormon.org/quiz/mormon_iq.php

Some highlights from my week...................

I got to go on ExChAnGeS with Sister Creager in a place called DIAMONDHEAD MISSISSIPPI. It's a cute little town full of retired people that live by a golf course and all the streets are named Hawaiian words!

We went and helped a sweet sister who has been away from the gospel for a long time paint her house. Turns out she had a son that served a mission in ICELAND which is really awesome and I haven't ever heard of anyone getting their mission call there for real!

The scriptures teach us that when we serve Heavenly Father's children, we are serving him too. We were very happy to help and she said that she wants the missionaries to start visiting and teaching her again!

SO my arms were really sore from painting but it was totally worth it!

Another awesome service project we got to help with this week was the Bishop's Storehouse. A big semi truck loaded with food for the needy arrived saturday morning and we unloaded it, put it in shopping carts, and organized it in the church gym! It was so much fun!

I have really gained a testimony about how organized the church is! It's amazing!

I washed my watch in my jacket pocket. I hate when that happens.

Animal Feature of the week is an adorable Guinea pig named Wolfgang!

Well time is short and I have to tell you about the miracle that happened from yesterday!

It was a gloomy day.... dark clouds. I had a migrane. I just wanted to be lazy and not do anything....

But i knew that was Satan trying to throw off my groove!

SO I prayed for strength and got Sister Mcgregor and headed out the door!

Well I drove to a neighborhood I thought hadn't been tracted in a while. But it just didn't feel right. I knew that some inactive members lived around the corner so I drove to their house thinking maybe we could go visit them.

But the prompting came really strongly that we needed to tract, there were people I needed to find.

Car parked, prayer said, we knock on the first house and what do you know! A beautiful african american mother lets us inside to share a message with her.

She tells us that her Dad is a baptist pastor but she is open to different religions. She also tells us that she happened to be praying when we knocked on her door for strength because her 21 yr old son has gone off the deep end and she feels so sad about it!

I told her about the Book of Mormon - another witness of Jesus Christ. Told her how it can help her find strength and left her with a chapter I thought she would like. We are going back this thursday to see what she thought.

We walked out the door smiling because I knew that Heavenly Father wanted us to find her and led us to her. She is a very elect person!

WELL then the next door we knock on was a sweet lady too! She was busy at the moment but asked us if we could come back tomorrow!

SO we found 2 new investigators in less than 15 mins! What a miracle!

I love the Lord and I am so happy to be his missionary! I have seen so many miracles and blessings to ever deny that he is real! I know he is, and that he HEARS our prayers.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!!!

ACCOMPLISH THOSE NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

and make sure that you ask God to help you with all of them!

We can do all things through ChRisT who strengthens us! 

Love, Sister Brown

Looking Back

I have so much to write about and such little time to do so!

Here is me 1 year ago

 

 

And here is me today!

 

 

I may not look like I have changed very much.... gained a little more weight... I cut my hair... and I have traveled around the south to many different places.

But I have changed SO MUCH inside!!!!!

I feel as though my SOUL has grown. My spirit has become a bigger part of me than the flesh.

I am learning who the 'natural man' is inside of me, and learning how to control it. I am giving my spirit greater power over myself and learning each day how to make the best use of my agency.

I have been thinking a lot about who I have become since I became a missionary. I feel like I am still myself, but that I have let my mission mold me into who I have always wanted to be. I still have a long way to go, but I feel that you don't have to be "perfect" to be an amazing person; and my goal when I came on my mission was that I didn't just want to "pass through." I really wanted to make a difference and to make an impression.

Lately what has been on my mind a lot is the fact of all the promises in my patriarchal blessing that have been fulfilled.

(if you don't know what a patriarchal blessing is, you can find out HERE----->

https://www.lds.org/topics/patriarchal-blessings?lang=eng

But as I often read over all the things I have been promised if I am faithful, I can see them beginning to unfold. I see all the things I am doing right now that are mentioned in my patriarchal blessing, but I just didn't realize that was what was meant when I recieved it.

I am so grateful to be a missionary!

There is not a day that goes by that I am not happy to be here.

I had a dream the other night. I was home from my mission,  and I was just DEPRESSED! Tears were always flowing down my face and finally my mom turns to me and asks me what was wrong. I said "I would give anything, for just 5 more minutes on my mission."

I woke up and realized that I was still here...... and I was so happy I almost cried! I glanced over to my bedside table and saw my name-tag sitting there... I had to grab it and put it on!

I am grateful Heavenly Father allowed me to have that dream because sometimes it is easy to "wish our missions away" thinking about all the other things we could be doing.... missing our friends and family back home.... the list goes on. But I needed that reminder that my time here is so short, and I know that pretty soon I will be on that airplane back home and wishing I could only have "5 more minutes."

So for these last 3 transfers (transfers are every 6 weeks) I am going to try and make the best use of the Lord's time here and not waste it or wish it away. I know that my life will still be there when I get home, but missions aren't about you!!!!

I hope everyone had a great christmas.

My Christmas was great and we celebrated "The Gift" of the Savior.

I love spending this time of year reflecting on His life, and setting goals to become better, and become more like Him.

Bobby Harris got baptized December 20th and it was a great day for their family. He is doing wonderful and we are so glad that we have had the chance to teach them!

 

 

We also had the baptism of Marionna, Tommy and Michael on December 28th!

This moment has been very much anticipated and I couldn't have been happier to be there! What a special day in their lives.

I have a very strong connection to Marionna and she reminds me a lot of my Sister Madison. I think I have mentioned that before, but I am just so happy that she is a part of my life and I am able to help teach their family!

 

 

 

I don't know if I mentioned that I was in a car accident a couple weeks ago. I actually got a concussion, and didn't feel very well for a couple days. But I am back to normal now and back to my perky self :)

The car was hurt much worse than we were. A texting teenager ran into the back of us while we were stopped at a light! He called his mom and said "Mom, I just ran into 2 nuns with my car."

hahaha, I was laughing because when his mom got here she was like....

"Oh, you aren't nuns." she was very confused to say the least! But I am just glad that we were mostly safe!!!!

We had our missionary zone conference and I got toilet paper!!!! It was awesome! We learned so much. We talked a lot about the parable of the currant bush.

Click below for a short, inspiring video.

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages/topics/adversity?v=1839005837001

 

 

I had a great christmas and of course the highlight of it was talking to my family via skype!!!! 

 

Well I will have to write more next week.... but I love and miss you all! Thank you for everything you do for me!

Love, Sister Brown