Here is Brittany's e-mail home from today, August 29, 2011.
Hi family!
Thank you for all of your emails and love and support. Can I just say that I LOVE hearing about how me being on a mission is making you all look out for more missionary opportunities. I love how much support you show, and I love hearing all of your insights about how I could be more effective. I can now see that missionaries love having members like you, that are willing and enthusiastic to help out. And I just love your examples, I'm so grateful to just have such a supportive solid family.
So this week was good! Still learning things, still trying to solve problems, all of that. There were some highlights as well. So our numbers this week were superrr low because a ton of our appointments fell thru, we had zone conference, we didn't have any "full field" days, which left us with like 3 hours to proselyte other days. It's tough, because I'm still wanting to see some progress, but our time is so limited! But it's all good, we worked hard this week and really got some things going.
Sis Tejada and I met w/ the branch pres and mish leader about creating a branch mission plan, they don't have one yet. So we're gonna get that going for them, and we found out that they really want us to work on finding people and fellowshipping people in activities...we have a talent show sept 16, kinda like tujunga ward! So yeah, it was really good to meet with them. And mom, I loved your insight about how to work with older men...they gotta think that it was their idea first :) It's true haha!
Also, this sunday I gave a TALK in church! So, I took that as an opportunity to get the ward to trust me more. I was the concluding speaker, spoke for 15 minutes about what we learn from the first vision. Afterwards, I told sister tejada I was like "i hope people got the message how i intended it" and she basically told me that when gringo missionaries speak, it's like the congregation just likes to listen for how their spanish is...it was like a big test for me haha. And it's true, I got lots of compliments on my Spanish, moreso than on the message. So maybe that means that I still gotta work on the spanish so it's no longer a factor :) But nonetheless, it was a good way to open up the door to the branch, they now know who I am, they know that I want to work with them, all that. I spoke on how the first vision shows us that god is always the same, always watching out for us, we can receive answers to our prayers, but sometimes we have to suffer opposition and really strive hard until we get our own "first visions". So yeah! That was good.
As for investigators. Well we had one who came to church, a son of a recent convert named fernando who i hadn't even met yet because appointments always fell thru. Dad, I totally understand what you meant about latinos thinking it's better to say yes and not show up...happens every day, trying to figure out how we can prevent that. So fernando came. Giselle and Alexis were going to come but then woke up too late and had to watch their brother :( But we have some activities this week that we're hoping to get a lot of investigators to.
As for the familia baez, we taught them the plan of salvation this week with a member, and it went well. THEN...a highlight of the week. Sis Tejada had mentioned to them last week that her bday was comign up. So in our lesson on thursday(the day before her bday), the little girl chayla and all her neighborhood friends were liek "we have a surprise for you", and after the lesson, they bust out with a bunch of handmade cards and handmade party hats for sister tejadas birthday! It was the best surprise ever! They had totally remembered and they had worked all week to make her these birthday treats. So all of us put on the birthday hats and celebrated, it definitely made sister tejada's birthday.
Then Friday was her actual birthday, so we celebrated that in various ways. In the breakroom in the VC her old comp and I worked to decorate it, and her old comp (Sis solorzano) had promised her a pinata, so we set that up too. But then the next day, we dropped off the pinata at the familia baez's, because it was one of the little girl's bdays on sunday. So that was fun because we were able to kinda give back and help make her birthday special. So that was definitely a memorable experience.
As you can probably tell, the familia baez is our main focus, the ones with the most potential it seems like. Still havent come to church b/c the mom works, but were working on that. So yesterday we invited them to come to the VC, and they came! Except for the dad and son who were playing soccer. But we showed them a new art exhibit we got (all local artists, called "the art of faith", and its really really great), showed them a short movie, showed them god's plan, all that. It was really really good, the mom has such a strong desire, and she just cries all the time when we teach her hahaha. But they're such a sweet family, and hopefully coming to volleyball w/ the branch this thursday (an activity every week we're gonna try to take advantage of). So yeah...they're doing well, hoping to see them progress.
What else...oh, found out that one of the girls in the VC is Sister Dyer, second cousin to jennie and john and anna jackson. Haha, so that was cool...tell them that if you see tina or someone.
Ok VC miracle of the week...so this lady came in with two elders, and they showed her god's plan. God's plan is the movie you walk thru, and a sister starts and ends it w/ a little introduction and a testimony at the end. So i took them thru it, and afterwards the lady was crying and crying, and I told her that I know that those types of families are possible and she as like "ya se, yo la tengo", and she talked about her family. The problem is, I could only understand probably like half of what she was saying, because she was crying and talking softly in spanish. But she was talking about how her son was into drugs and stuff like that. And i just told her that I knew that things could change, and we could find day to day hope thru the gospel of jesus christ, and how what the missionaries were teaching her could bring her the same peace that she felt in the VC. and I kinda posed the question to her "well, what now?" and I told her that she needed to listen to the missionaries, and she needed to go to church to meet other people who were striving to have happy families like her. And I saw the elders a few days later, and they were teaching her again, so I think it went really well. It was a testimony to me of the importance of having sister missionaries, because she felt a lot more comfortable opening up to a sister than to her elders, no offense to them :) But that was really cool.
As for your questions...we bring lunch to the VC if that's when our shift is. If we're here at dinner time, the ward members drop off meals for us. Or if were proselyting during dinner time, we will go to their homes for dinner. so we only eat in member homes prob like 2 or 3 times a week, the rest is dropped off. I haven't really gone out to lunch at all.
Anyways, that's about all the time that I have..things are going well, I'm still being stretched. Hoping my spanish improves. Learnng more about how the Atonement works and is a real thing. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! And I'm so grateful for your support, really I love youuuuuuuuuuuu!
Love,
Hermana Fors
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