Semana 37
Olá todo mundo!
Sorry I´m writing late again, this
internet café is really hard to
catch open before almoço - the lunch
hour is huge and everything
closes down during the heat of the
day!
This week was a week of blessings -
starting off with hearing from
Adriano my recent convert in Natal.
He was recently ordained an ELDER
and is preparing to serve a MISSION
in JUNE!!!! There is seriously no
greater happiness than this, and my
mind is taken to the scripture in
D&C 18:15-16 that says,
15 And if it so be that you should
labor all your days in crying
repentance unto this people, and
bring, save it be one soul unto me,
how great shall be your joy with him
in the kingdom of my Father!
16 And now, if your joy will be great
with one soul that you have
brought unto me into the kingdom of
my Father, how great will be your
joy if you should bring many souls
unto me!
I never really thought that this
scripture would apply to me, but I
have absolutely no doubt that both me
and Adriano will one day rejoice
together in the kingdom of our God.
This week we had ZONE CONFERENCE in
Caicó - 4ish hours away from
Mossoró, where all of the zones from
the interior (Mossoró, Caicó, and
Souza) and I got to see everyone from
the interior that I love and
also hear from President and Sister
Soares.
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| Sister Brown at zone conference |
I loved the training that
Sister Soares gave and would like to
share a little of what I learned
from her. She said that observing and
studying nature helps us
understand life, and our trials and
experiences. I reflected on the
countless hours that I have spent in
my life in the mountains and in
nature, and really observing the work
and hand of God. Many times in
the scriptures the prophets and
apostles went to commune with God in
the mountains - oh how I miss them!
She also had us ask ourselves a
few questions that I would like you
guys to internalize as well -
How is my relationship with God? How
can I improve my relationship
with Him? How can I develop more love
for Him and for others?
This led right into everything that I
loved about CONFERENCE this
weekend!!! Wow so we got to watch the
General Women´s Conference
(which I missed out on last time) and
I just cried through the whole
thing!! Incredible. They showed a
short film of a young girl getting a
card from her ward primary teacher -
and I immediately remembered
every letter that Brother Tom Muir
from the Edgemont ward wrote me -
countless heartfelt letters, even
YEARS after we moved out and up
until I turned 17 or 18 he was
writing me letters. My heart was filled
with gratitude and I recognized the
christlike love that man has in
his life. I want to do a better job
of thanking people who are
charitable and myself look for more
opportunities to do so. I also
loved Sister Reeves´ talk about the
Atonement and maintaining virtue,
and I thought of the example of my
beautiful mother. She is an
incredible, virtuous woman who raised
her family in righteousness and
doesn´t let the world dictate her
standards. I love you, mom. Of
course my sentimental feelings were
compounded with Elder Holland´s
talk on mothers! Maternal love really
is divine. I thought of a few
experiences in my life and the life
of our family. I thought of the
very difficult time before I left on
the mission, and how mom shared
my load to help me return to the
right path and help me get on my
mission. I thought of the patient
love she had in taking care of and
raising Adam (don´t complain bro we
all know it was tough but love you
ever more for it!), and of all of the
times that mom gave up her
sleep, her needs, her time, and
everything she had to take care of us
at home, and in every part of the
world we are. I truly do love you
mom and hope that I can become half
the woman you are!
It´s through the experiences and
stores of our lives that we learn of
the nature of God and His gospel. I
loved Elder Nelson´s talk (as
always, he is my favorite) about the
importance of women who keep
covenants with the Lord! Especially after
passing through the temple I
have a better understanding of his
talk. He gave a huge list of
qualities of women who keep their
temple covenants, and I feel like I
really am learning these qualities
here on the mission. I am learning
how to plan, to direct, to gain
knowledge, to be faithful, to know
that things happen according to our
faith, how to receive personal
revelation (always think of Elder
Scott´s talk), aof how to protect my
family, of how to teach diligently,
and how to follow the counsel of
the Spirit. ALL of these things, and
more. And I am immensely happy
for all of these lessons that I am
learning here on the mission. I
truly feel that I would not have
learned these lessons the way that I
have without having been a
missionary. I thank my God EVERY SINGLE DAY
that I decided to serve a mission.
This is hardly a sacrifice when you
look at the eternal perspective - it
is the least that we should do,
and not only that, but we are
commanded to spread the knowledge of the
gospel to every living creature,
beyond the people that we love!
Of course this was only a little of
what I learned and loved from
Conference, but wanted to share a few
thoughts! Also I watched it in
Portuguese this time and my notes
were mixed english and portuguese so
I may have interpreted things
different but it´s all in accordance
with the spirit right ;) We were also
blessed with 10 INVESTIGATORS
who came with us and watched
conference! Blessings of the mission, we
had the most investigators who watched
conference than anyone else in
the mission!
I will "ponderize"
scriptures and share them with you guys as well! I
think it would be cool to do the same
scriptures every week. So mom
I´ll ponderize the same scripture as
you and we can share what we
learned next week!
(mom note: our scripture is from Moroni 10:20-21)
20 Wherefore, there must be faith; and if there must be faith there must also be hope; and if there must be hope there must also be charity.
21 And except ye have charity ye can in nowise be saved in the kingdom of God; neither can ye be saved in the kingdom of God if ye have not faith; neither can ye if ye have no hope.
My time is short, but I wanted to
send my gratitude and LOVE for you
all and can´t believe that the time
is counting down before we talk
again for CHRISTMAS!
Amo vocês! Se cuidem!
Sister Brown
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