No Hay Tiempo!

Hey everyone! Sorry I don't have a lot of time to write this weeeeeeeekkkkk! I'm soryyyyyyyy but what I learned this week was pretty awesome! I learned that its SO important to do everything you can to have the Spirit with you! If you make that your first priority everything else will follow! and specifically for  missionaries we cant teach without it! 

I've been trying to focus on creating that spiritual environment better and that starts with waking up at 7 am in the morning every day! Not just in discussions!

Also, miracles happen! Heres' one that I wrote to my mission president this week. It's in Spanish sorry but y'all can put it into Google translate probably....

con eso quiero compartir un milagro que vi este semana:
estabamos muy cansadas, hemos tocado puertas todo el tarde y todos nuestros citas cayeron. pero nuestro unico deseo era para encontrar por lo menos, una persona buena. caminando por un calle que siempre tiene muchos personas, con planes para contactar hasta neccesitamos ir al consejo, pasamos un madre con sus hijas sentando a fuera de su casa. hablamos con ellas, y al principio estaban un poco cerrada, pero sigimos hablando con ellas, preguntando de su vida, familia y intereses. y eventualmente nos reconocieron como representantes de Jesucristo. por que la mamá abrió su corazon y hablo de los desafios de su familia. y nos invitó a pasar y enseñar! mientras enseñando la restauración, la mamá salió por un rato y su hija de 17 años nos contó su propio perpectivo de un familia roto. lloró, y compartió su testimonio que er simple pero sincero de jesucristo. 
segimos enseñando y buena leccion y cuando salimos, indiviualmente, nos agradacieron por veniendo a su casa. vamos a volver este semana. milagros pasa, mayormente cuando piensa que no van a pasar. tenga fe y solo siga trabajando. 
eso es lo que apprendi este semana. siga trabajando.

Ok thats all I really have time for right now. I'm trying my best to work hard and I know that this is the work of god! 

Scripture!! Alma 17:11

Love you all and thank you for your prayers! they always help!

Love and Luck from Tarija, Bolivia!

Hermana Brown

pics

-our dessert one lunch, half a papaya with yogurt and cerel. it was good!

-Saice! the tarijan dish!

-pics from watching rey leon with maté and pancakes with hermana vega y hermana gonovilca!

also the view from the tp of their building.

chau <3

Traanslated Version:

with that I want to share a miracle which I saw this week: we were very tired, have played Gates throughout the afternoon and all our appointments fell. but our only wish was to find at least one good person. walking down a street that has many people, with plans to contact up to neccesitamos go to the Council, we had a mother with her daughters sitting outside their House. We speak with them, and at first they were a bit closed, but sigimos speaking with them, asking his life, family and interests. and eventually we  were recognized as representatives of Jesus Christ. MOM opened her heart and I talk about the challenges of his family. and invited us to go and teach them! While teaching the restoration, MOM came out for a while and her 17-year-old daughter told us his own perpectivo of a family broken. She cried and shared his testimony than simple but sincere er of Jesus Christ.  segimos teaching and good lesson.   We are going to return this week. miracles happens mostly when you think will not happen. have faith and just keep working.  that's what apprendi this week. continue to work.

Tarijans Love Potatoes Too Much

Hey guys!

 This week was hard but I learned a ton about patience and love and that patriarchal blessings can be an amazing source of strength and hope as was mine for me this week.

I don't want to talk much about the struggles this week cuz that no fun but just so y'all know every struggle I faced I also received some pretty amazing assurances from my Heavenly Father that everythings going to be alright.

One of the funny things that happened this week is our pensionista made lunch called pido de papa, which was a side salad with about 4 whole potatoes and 2 whole sweet potatoes on one plate. It was very good but I couldn't eat all the potatoes. It is one of my favorite plates now though it is very healthy. The people like quinoa here a lot. 

Also my testimony.

This week I know that this is the great and marvelous work of the Lord and I'm exactly where I need to be right now in my life doing exactly what I should be doing. And we are all daughter and sons of God who loves us and knows us each individually. 

This is his one true church. and the message of the restored gospel is a happy one. That families can be eternal and that Christ lives and God still talks to his children on earth. There is room for the Gospel in every persons life and ever person needs to hear it. If you are someone who has a testimony of these things (a big one or a small one, simple or grand) share it with someone, with anyone. Help the missionaries in your ward, they need it. And share the happy news of the restored gospel with anyone who will listen. "every member a missionary".

I love you guys. I hope all is well in your lives. Keep calm and carry on. 

Thank you for your prayers they always help a ton.

miracles happen, love and luck from Tarija, Bolivia,

Hermana Brown
<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

Preaching Repentance in Sodom and Gomorrah

So the worlds been up in flames this week. Literally.

So on Thursday night we were walking home after a long and good working day when we looked up to an uncommonly obscure night sky and a bright basically orange full moon. We ran up to the roof of our building to admire the moon and it was indeed beautiful hanging just above the brick colored Tarija houses and rolling mountains. I admired it for a minute or two and then I turned around to go back inside, but what I saw when I turned around was a long orange crack in the dark night sky. I pointed it out to hna Herrera for a moment imagining that the Apocalypse had actually come or the fabric of time had been broken or something when I realized that the crack wasn't in the sky but it was lining the tops of the dark mountains. And there was more a bit farther to the east too. We realized it was moving and the reality of a HUGE mountain forest fire hit us. I realized why the stars weren't as clear as usual because the sky was filled with smoke. I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. I hadn't heard a word or seen any panic all day and the city was as calm and peaceful as it usually was at night. Yet there it was in front of my eyes destruction that wasn't really to far off.

We watched it for a while and then went to bed. The next day followed with finding out from our pencionista that all classes had been cancelled and people should stay inside from the air contamination. And that the fire was spreading almost to Argentina without any signs of stopping. Chili with their big firefighting helicopters were of no help, typical chili. and the government in La Paz were partying while Tarija was burning.  She told us if the fire got to the city with all the loose electrical cables, that there wouldn't be survivors and likened the situation to Sodom and Gomorrah. We were directed by our leaders to buy face masks and to keep working. We continued our day as normal. The fire continued until on Sunday we were told to stay inside the house unless we had a secure appointment with someone. But not too soon after lunch the fire had finally gone out and we were told we could go out proselyting again.

it was an interesting weekend. ha ha

Conferencia

We had a stake conference this week and were able to hear messages from the general offices broad casted to all of Peru and Bolivia. I learned a lot and one thing I like was they talked about missionary work ,and how if you're a youth and trying to decide to go on a mission, the better answer is yes, because we will never feel like we need to repent for serving a mission but we may feel we need to repent for not serving one. So if you do have the opportunity, you should choose to go and I testify of that because its the best! Also what was really cool is they shared a story of a member named Henry, that everyone thought was a great story, afterward I realized it was the story of one of the members and his family that I know very well from my last area!! Cool!

OK well don't have much time but I love you all, and don't be afraid to do things even if you don't know exactly how to do them, just have faith and act and that's how you will learn!

I testify that Christ lives and he loves and knows each and every one of us individually. He is our Savior.

love you all have a great week!

love and luck from Bolivia <3

Hermana Brown

Happy Independence Day, Bolivia!

Hey guys!

So this week we had some ups and downs. We were able to help out an awesome member named hna Cachari. She is a returned missionary (she had 80 converts! crazy) and she's amazing. She's a strong women who is fighting lucimia right now. Her faith is amazingly strong. We made her a little cake that we bought in the "campacino" (which is a giant market area that seems like a tiny city because it is throughout multiple surrounding streets.) and I decorated. pics attached.She liked it a lot.

We have an amazing family that's absolutely golden and its a mom with her two daughters. They have a date for the 19th and they absorb the gospel like a sponge! They came to church this week and loved it they already seem like members! We are blessed to have the opportunity to teach them.

We also had a great lesson with an old investigator where the spirit guided us to talk about the love of god. And it was a great spiritual experience, she understood a lot better.

We also met some pretty hard-hearted people this week too. One guy walked in on a lesson we were having with someone else and started attacking us out of know where and the spirit left. We kept our cool though and did our best to be patient even though he was being pretty rude. 

We also got to go to an amazing activity where the whole stake came and all the members had prepared traditional Bolivian dances from each department that they performed for celebration of Bolivia's Independence Day! It was amazing! But I forgot my camera... sorry.

yay Bolivia!

I know the gospel is restored on the earth and I know Christ lives and he is my savior! I'm so grateful for the love He has for me and the sacrifice He made! There is nothing better I could be doing right no but sharing His light with others!

I love you guys! Remember to do something good for someone else this week!

love and luck from Bolivia

hermana Brown

New Area, New Everything!

Hey guys! So as you've heard, I'm in TARIJA!!

So a little about Tarija, to start its a LOT more beautiful and calmer than the big bustling Santa Cruz (and although i love it here and the streets are a TON cleaner, I feel a weird defensive pride for the city that I learned to love. <3 Santa Cruz)

But my area is basically everything I dreamed. The city is beautiful.  We've got lots of restaurants in our area and the marketplace and the Feria (there was a Feria of all things tiny this week that only happens once a year it was so cute and everything was indeed made tiny! mostly food but still we had fun eating tiny salteñas empanadas and cakes and mini hamburgers.) There's bags of juice here called Karpil that hna Mamán talked all about and I finally tried, I felt like I was drinking a straight up liquidated orange. It was awesome. 

The streets are like those of San Francisco. You don't have be looking down for it to be staring you in the face. I'm burning a lot more calories hiking to our  investigatores houses ha ha. There are MOUNTAINS! It's beautiful! And our house is like a real house! It's really nice and I like it a lot. We needed to do a lot of cleaning and organizing though which took up all this morning and we still have more to do. The members here in 4 De Julio (hence #freedom) are really nice and great but its a small ward and they don't have a pianist. But the chapel is nicer and cozier. Also the weather here is perfect! It's not hot and crazy windy and eating sand 100% of the time like Santa Cruz. I can actually wear a sweater. 

We only have 3 companionships in our district. But one of the elders is from my CCM (MTC) district, he is training a new missionary. 

Hna Herrera is from Argentina too! We drink mate EVERY night! I love it. She's from the province of Misiones where the giant falls bigger than Niagara waterfalls are. She's the tiniest person to ever exist but shes full of energy and were both ready to work really hard this cambio. I'm excited. It's kind of scary being senior companion because I'm the one responsible for everything and my comp looks to me to make the decisions.But I'm learning and growing a lot. I feel like I'm being a real missionary. But I still feel scared to open my mouth sometimes. but I open it anyways and trust the spirit to guide me. It always works ha ha. 

We made "rollos" with a family this week that were really good and we also have a really nice park in our area and also we found the mystery machine!!ha ha. 

Well I'm excited to be here in Tarija and I know that I'm exactly where I'm meant to be. I'm so blessed to be here and also to have met all the people I've met in my area before in Las Misiones. I've attached just a few of the photos of only a few of the many amazing people and friends I made in Santa Cruz and some from Tarija.

OK love you guys! remember that wherever you are right now you can do what you can to make a difference! Have faith and just do it! the lord always provides a way for us to complete his commandments! (1 Nefi 3:7) walk the path he's prepared for success!

We also met a wonderful lady with her daughter this week named Janith and Fabiola who accepted a baptism date in the first lesson. She's amazing and we teach her in the park. She absorbs the gospel like a sponge and I'm happy to be teaching her the wonderful message of the restored gospel. My challenge you you all this week is to ask the missionaries for a pamphlet of "the Restoration" and give it to one of your friends!! You can do it! Share Christ's light with the world and make the world a little bit happier!

Love you all thank you for all your prayers! I really need them!

Love and luck from Bolivia

Hermana Brown