Your Missionary is Here

Just wanted to let you know that your missionary is here safe and sound, has been fed (and is about to be fed again--   we don't want any hungry missionaries in the Texas Dallas Mission!!!), and is about to go out with a companionship to dive right into real missionary work.

 

 

The preparation day for our mission is Monday of each week. You can e-mail your missionary on preparation day and he/she can e-mail you unless it is a holiday and their place to send e-mails is closed. E-mails are only for the immediate family. 

 

 

You will receive a letter and pictures later in the week, but we just wanted to assure you that he/she is here and doing well. If we an help you in any way while your missionary is here in Texas, feel free to give us a call at 972-239-5621.

 

 

Sister Penniston

Texas Dallas Mission

Texas Bound!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello!

 

 

Whoa we've been here 60 days and we're goin to TEXAS on Monday! Yesterday was in-field orientation where they talked about the meetings we'll go to in the real world and how to work with members. The cool part was that we learned how to teach memebers how to talk to their friends about the gospel. Simply by telling our friends to check out mormon.org is sharing the gospel. And everyone can benefit from the blessings of the gospel. When we're teaching investigators, I like thinking of what blessings of the gospel they need in their life at this time and then focusing on those. And I think we can do that with our friends too. We will know what to teach them when we have thought about what they need.

 

 

This last Tuesday Elder and Sister Oaks came to speak to us about teaching with the Spirit and having the Holy Ghost constantly in our life. As we take the Sacrament every week we renew our covenant to always remember Christ. By always remembering Christ we can always have the Holy Ghost with us as our constant companion. I know that this is a very precious gift and we are so blessed to have it as memebers. 

 

 

So I'll call home some time Monday early morning... if you're not home I'll just leave a message because I'm not sure exactly what time we can call. I'm so glad plans are coming along for the wedding! i know that it will be a lovely day.

 

 

I love you!

Hermana Brown

 

 

ps. after trying out they chose us to sing "Consider the Lilies" as the special musical number for our departing devotional tomorrow, good thing it's a quartet

Travel Plans

Hello!!!

Yesterday we got our travel plans to leave on March 26th, a little more than week away! im stoked! and i think i get to call you that day but ill let you know. Thanks so much for the church program! it was so good to get mitch's message on it too! sounds like you all had a great time together.

this next week the hermanas and i in our district are going to audition to sing at a fireside, singing "consider the lilies." it will be a quartet- they all have beautiful voices to cover mine haha. the other hermanas are going to tucson az so we're going to miss them.

We had another great fireside this last sunday- Elder Cardon of the 70. He and his wife talked about the divinity we have as children of God. As in Moses 1:6 we are like Jesus Christ and He has a mission for us to do. Sometimes I think we lose sight of that and forget the divinity we have in us. We need to remember that we are truly sons and daughters of God and He wants us to be happy.

I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to serve. Thank you for your prayers! I love you! :)

love

Hermana Brown

Alex Boye

hola,

thanks so much mommatot for your testimony of the Atonement. I really liked your metaphor of the dirty microwave and with each swipe can be made clean. And that's why this gospel is so amazing!!! repentance is such a great blessing, and something we need to be working at everyday. no one is perfect and that is why we need Jesus Christ. I know that He is always waiting with open arms and wants us to come unto Him and be happy.

This last Sunday Alex Boye was our fireside speaker. He started with 'our Savior's love' and he sang it with such compassions and love for the Savior. he also shared his conversion story- if you havent heard it you should look it up (youtube 'alex boye im a mormon') its really quite inspiring and funny. His main point was that we become what we think about the most. he speaks with such conviction and compassion he sounds like a baptist preacher!

i think my favorite part was when he talked about how he was at a hotel one time and went down for breakfast. when he came back up to the room he noticed his room wasnt made but the maids had done the rooms surrounding his. so when he asked them what the problem was the maids told him that his 'do not disturb' sign was up. and then he likened this to us, sometimes we walk around with a 'do not disturb' sign so Heavenly Father cant come and clean up what's inside. instead we need to flip the sign around that says 'cleaning service needed'.
then he finished with 'how great thou art' while walking around the auditorium.

ive been learning more about personal revelation and helping others recognize their own personal revelation. this week we talked about how that the mormon culture is that we must know it's a spiritual impression in the moment. that we'll receive a spiritual impression and think 'oh this is a spiritual impression, i should act on this'. nope. most of our impressions will come because we're doing what we're supposed to and we'll do something and have no idea why we're doing it, just doing it because it's the right thing to do. Pres. Packer gave a Byu-idaho talk called "20-mark note" and if you have time i highly recommend listening to it.

I have a testimony of this gospel. It not only blesses individuals but families as well and I know that our family has been blessed because we were raised in a home where the Spirit could come.

i love you and pray for you!

muah,

hermana brown

ps. mommatot i heard tha you and gma drove to idaho to meet ben? how did that go? how are wedding plans? when is mitch coming to az to get his teethers cleaned? dad how was your trip?

On Sun, Mar 4, 2012 at 11:10 PM, susan brown <susanzbrown@yahoo.com> wrote:

Harrroo, Hermana Brown,

Today while I was cleaning out the microwave, I started to think of a metaphor. The microwave was plastered with something that had exploded all over on the inside. It was hard to tell what real color the inside was due to the massive bits of food spread on all the walls. It really wasn't hard to clean up, it just took time. Then I noticed that every wipe of the dishcloth, made a big difference.

That is when I got thinking of Jesus Christ and how he has paid the price for my sins and the entire world's sins. No matter how big and ugly our sins are the atonement wipes us all clean. Just like the microwave oven walls were a big mess, with my constant and repetitive movements, in time became clean again. When I finished cleaning it, no one would have know that there was a food explosion in there.

Jesus Christ is constant, loving, forgiving and understanding; all we have to do is be repetitive in our repentance process. He does the rest in making us clean.

I have a testimony that Jesus Christ is my Savior, and that he died for me. He is our older brother and loves us and wants us to be happy. His plan is the plan of happiness. This earth life is a time for trials and to make mistakes. We may stumble and fall, but with our Savior, all will be made clean again.

We love you. We pray for you. We are proud of you.

xoxoxo

Momma Tot

22 Days in the Classroom

Hello!

thanks so much for the slip and eyedrops, it's perfect! and thanks for the letter updating everything and sharing your insights you gained from stake conference. too bad i can't join you for part of women's conference! i love it too! :) maybe you can get another pic with vocal point! lol who will you room with if bronwyn doesnt go?

This past week was a powerful devotional by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland!!! it was AMAZING. he sure knows how to speak directly to us. i took 5 pages of notes! Here are some things i wrote down:

-We don't have a symbol in the church but if we did have to have one it would be the image of 2missionaries. i thought that was way cool and kind of puts pressure on us as missionaries!

-He told us about Preach My Gospel and how it was created to convert the missionary and then we're supposed figure out how to convert the investigator . We should constantly remind ourselves that we are God's investigator, somewhere in the middle of the lessons.

-And then he talked about something i had never thought of before... the first chapter of the book of mormon is similar to Joseph Smith's story. So if we can get an investigator to read the first chapter, they are on their way to a testimony of the restoration.

I know that the Book of Mormon is written for our day and is comparable to the bible. It is a book of revelation about revelation and it teaches us that the heavens are open and we can receive revelation through it. Wow, we are so blessed to have it. We need to read and re-read it because of this.

Thank you for your letters and prayers. I love serving. And I love this gospel.

Have a great day! :)

love

hermana brown

ps if you have time, you should read Richard G. Scott's talk "To Acquire Spiritual Guidance" from Oct. 2009 conference. He talks about revelation and how once we get revelation we need to 1. thank the Lord for it and then 2. ask if there is anymore. I had never really thought about the second part but I know that the Lord has personal revelation for us if we ask.

pss. one of our elders figured out that by the end of our time at the mtc we will have spent 22 days straight in the classroom. no wonder why its so nice to go outside.