Week 4!

Ok, so this week went so fast. I feel like I was just typing an email.

 Time flies when you're having the time of your life.

Seriously, though. This was probably one of the craziest/busiest/most amazing weeks of my life!

On Sunday I got to sing for the prophet! How super cool is that?

It was kind of a miracle that it actually happened since I had been in the clinic recovering for the week before. We got to sing for all of the 12 and the first presidency including the prophet as well as all of the new mission presidents and their wives. It was such an amazing experience. How many people even get to be in one room with that many spiritual giants at the same time. As soon as we walked in the room, the spirit was so strong! We were nervous out of our minds but we were blessed and the song went beautifully!

The coolest part about the whole thing was that it didn't end there. 

That night at the broadcast (which I'll talk more about in a minute) I had to catch a shuttle over because of my knee. Because we got there so early we got seated ON THE FRONT ROW. So, there I was sitting 10 feet away from the quorum of the 12 for the SECOND TIME that day. What?? Who gets to ever do that? 

It was so incredible! I didn't really make it in the broadcast but there are several pictures of apostles talking where I'm just like next to them blurred out in the background. So, I guess you could say I'm basically famous haha. 

Later throughout the week I got to sing in 4 more meeting with the 12 on the stand just a couple feet away. They were so, so kind and the spirit was always so strong. Our practices were also very spiritual because we got thoroughly worked over and picked apart by Dr. Eggett, we would spend the last 30 minutes bearing testimony of what we were going in to sing about.

On our last day, we sang this insanely gorgeous rendition of "Joseph Smith's First Prayer". Brother Egget was in the meeting after we left and he said the spirit was so strong. When Elder Holland got up to conduct he was crying and couldn't speak for several minutes. He said the rest of the meeting was so powerful and the song was mentioned several times. It was so neat to be able to be involved in such a spiritual day and week! I feel extremely blessed!

Ok, the Broadcast. Wow right?? Wasn't it just amazing. Member involvement is so SO critical for missionary work. As a missionary I know that Heavenly Father wants ALL of His children to return to Him. It is such a privileged to be involved in the process. I know that missionary work is not just for missionaries. We all have the opportunity and the duty to share the gospel with those around us through our actions, examples and words. We have the happiest, greatest message on earth- why would we not want to share that? I hope that everyone was able to catch the vision during the broadcast.

 I want to challenge all of you to do one thing this week to further and support the spreading of the gospel. I had a distinct impression during the broadcast that I especially want to invite my family to get involved in missionary work.  Here's a few ways I thought we could do this:

Make a mormon.org profile and post a link to it

share your testimony on Facebook or a blog

invite a less active or nonmember friend to an activity or to church with you

Have the missionaries over for dinner

Go out with the missionaries for a lesson (Kelsey. *cough* *cough)

Have a family night lesson from PMG about missionary work or any of the principles found in there

Give someone a Book of Mormon with a specific passage highlighted that you think can help them (always a good go-to)

Write someone who's having a hard time a personal letter of love and about the power of the atonement

There are SO many things we could do. I would like to invite you all to pray about something you can do, someone you can help come closer to Christ and then to DO it. I would love to get an email or letter (letters are actually a million times better) back from each of you telling me what you chose to do and how it went before next Friday.

 This is going to be great and I'm so excited to see how you bless other people's lives!

In other exciting news, I was made Sister Training Leader this week. I have very similar responsibilities to the Zone Leader except there's 2 of the and 1 of me. Yikes! There's so much to do because our branch is quite large!

It's also kind of been nut-so because schedules have been super messed up with the mission presidents here and everything. We also got TWO new districts on Wednesday so that has kept us very busy! I have 8 new sisters to show around and it's been so fun! One of them in Elise Andrus. Can you believe that? Her room is next door to mine and her classroom is to. We see each other all say long!

I was kind of thrown into it but it's been a huge blessing in my life. I've already missed so many things between surgery, doctors visits, choir practices, performances so it's kind of exciting to miss more with all of my new responsibilities. Who needs to learn Portuguese right?? My testimony of service and focusing on the needs of others has really grown because I haven't really haven't had time to worry about myself and I have never been happier! 

As far as my knee goes, I have survived that last few days without crutches, after last week's miraculous healing I have really felt so much better. I thank HF for that blessing every day. I'm still taking care of myself. The Doctor said that everything is going great and that the surgery went quite perfectly. He said it will be a great knee for my mission. I'm very much on track to leave on July 8th still.

I feel so blessed that I ended up at the Provo MTC and not the one in Brazil that I was originally supposed to. Can you even imagine? The Dr. said my meniscus was a mess and I know that I wouldn't have been able to finish my mission if I had started in Brazil. If I was in Brazil right now, I also wouldn't have had this life changing experience of singing for the general authorities all week. Man, Heavenly Father sure knows his stuff! I'm so glad he's the on in charge! 

Sorry this is so long! I love all of  you so much! Thank you for all of the letters and love and prayers. It really makes all the difference in the world and I rely quite heavily on them:)

I know this is the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that missionary work is so essential and I'm so excited to hear about how you bring others closer to Christ this week!!  I promise that it will be an amazing experience if you pray for opportunities and the help of HF.

Chau!

Sister Brown