The Best Gift Ever!

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone had a beautiful Sabbath yesterday. We had 4 investigators come to church, which was a miracle because we figured no one would show up since it's the holidays. But they were there! It was the best gift we could have gotten! Speaking of gifts, the elder's investigator got baptized and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday. He was on cloud 9! The members are amazing and brought us lots of little presents- Sister Wilcox really appreciated it...she's been feeling a little homesick, but your first Christmas away is the hardest. We're kind of on opposite ends of the spectrum right now because all her "firsts" are my lasts! It's weird. It was SO wonderful to get to Skype with my family. We spent the day at our bishop's house and opened our presents from home, did a white elephant exchange, and played games. AND taught some people! Surprisingly enough, people wanted to hear about the gospel on Christmas! So we taught a few first lessons and have some solid return appointments! 

A recent convert in the church asked us to go over and teach her daughter about the gospel, and we were SUPER excited for their referral! So we go over and have a really good lesson about the Restoration, and then out of nowhere she pulls out, "My apartment is haunted. Can you help me?" So we ask her a few questions about why she thinks that, and she explains some pretty weird stuff. Usually if things like that are going on, you're doing something to invite those bad influences in your home. Then she says, "Well, my girlfriend is a Satanist, but I tell her not to do her rituals in the apartment." *ding ding ding ding* Well there you go. If having someone who worships Satan live with you doesn't make you feel like there's a bad presence in your home, I don't know what will. We explained the elders could bless her home, but that you can't keep out something that's being continually invited in. So that was an interesting experience this week. But she wants to be baptized, so that's cool!

I just want to bear my testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the Light of the World and every good thing comes because of and through Him. I love being able to celebrate His birth, but there would be no Christmas without Easter. His birth would be incomplete without His glorious Atonement for our sins. I know it's only because of Him that we have the opportunity to live with our Father in Heaven again. Sometimes keeping the commandments feels hard, and making righteous decisions seems impossible. But the Lord never asks us to do something we can't accomplish. I'm so grateful for his unending grace and mercy that satisfy the demands of justice if we do our part. 

***ALSO transfer news: I'm headed to Minneapolis! I'm going to be a Sister Training Leader on the University of Minnesota campus! I'll be in a YSA ward...holla!!! Since school is still on winter break I'll be over there in a couple weeks instead of Wednesday, so I have sufficient time to say goodbye to everyone! #blessing  

Shout out to the Young Men and Young Women at my home branch for sending the sweetest care package! Love y'all!

Missionaries or Low-Key Kidnappers?

This week has been FREEZING. Literally. Everything is frozen. Our door knobs, our car, our faces. But that's okay, because this week has also been AWESOME. We were able to see all of our investigators! Which is rare because everyone is so busy around the holidays. So that was good! I think the best appointment of the week was with Tanner. We decided we would watch Jospeh Smith: Prophet of the Restoration with him because that movie is SO good, and gives such a great understanding of the restoration of the gospel. So because of the rule of 3 (missionaries always have to have 3 members of the same sex when teaching a lesson- so we can teach any woman by ourself, but if we teach a guy then we either need another girl with us or 2 more men)...so anyway, because of that, we had to get the elders to come with us. BUT, another mission rule is that we can't drive investigators in our own car. SO we arranged for a member to come get him. The catch is that Tanner is high-key shy and isn't the biggest fan of meeting new people, so we told him we'd be there to pick him up. Which was basically true. So we meet him at the dorms, and tell him that someone is actually coming to get us. Then our ward mission leader pulls up in his bright red PT Cruiser with the elders and we're like "Actually you're going with him. We'll follow behind you in our car." At that point Tanner's eyes get huge and you can tell he's got the whole "I'm about to be kidnapped and sold into the sex slave trade" look going on. But he willingly complies and we head over to Bro Grawe's house to watch the movie. And GUESS WHAT? Tanner TOTALLY opened up to everyone! They're like 4 peas in a pod. So by the end of the evening they're all complete BFFs and Bro Grawe shares his conversion story, and the Spirit was so strong. Tanner said he really understood what led to the restoration of Christ's church and said he believed it happened! #heckyeah #poweroftheholyspirit #andgoodfellowship #gettingdunked

The hours leading up to that event were less awesome. We worked super hard all week and got 13 solid people who said they would come to church Sunday! We had rides lined up for them and everything, and you know what happened? Church. Gets. CANCELLED. I guess -30 degrees was too much for even the natives here, so we got phone calls and emails that no one should show up to church. We were SO DISAPPOINTED and had to call our investigators and tell them not to come. The saddest part was that it was a special sacrament meeting specifically for non-members and people visiting for the first time. My heart was in approximately 5,000 different pieces. But I know the Lord has His hand in everything and I'm sure there was a reason it happened!

Earlier in the week we went on exchanges! It was the best! I was with Sister Eriksson who's from Sweden and she has the cutest accent. It was awesome because everyone we talked to asked where she was from and why she was here, which was the perfect opportunity to bring up the gospel! And she's the most optimistic person I've ever met. It was the most fun I've had in a really long time- even tracting can be fun if you're with the right person! 

Even with the cold weather we've been doing our best to find new investigators. It's definitely more challenging, but I'm so grateful for the chance to teach people during the holidays (and it's definitely toughening me up!). The gospel of Jesus Christ is so important and changes lives- it needs to be shared! 

Can't believe Christmas is 6 days away! Hope everyone has an amazing holiday. (I get to Skype my family, so guaranteed missionaries all over will be having a very merry Christmas). Love you all! -Sister Brett

On the Ninth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me....

This week I've been thinking a lot about the prophesies of the birth of the Savior, like the new star in the sky that would appear as a sign of His coming. For example, when our car wouldn't start this week, it was a sign of the arrival of winter. Or when we had to break out the snow shovels. Or start wearing thermals. Personally I'd much rather enjoy the arrival of baby Jesus than brace for the hash cold front, but I'm grateful we get to celebrate His humble birth, even in the deep mid-winter. 

We've had LOTS of opportunities to find new investigators! The roads have been pretty nasty, so we've been opting to walk almost everywhere. People go out of their way to tell us we're insane for tracting while the snow is pelting down, so it makes for a great conversation starter! And there's definitely no better time to be a missionary than the holidays. Everyone is way happy and a lot more willing to hear our message. 

Yesterday was Clois' third week in a row at church! She really loves it- and we love her! She always has these wonderful insights she shares in class and people just eat her up. She fits right in. I see a bright future in the Relief Society...

Gene and Rosemary are still struggling with keeping the Word of Wisdom. Kicking a smoking habit is so hard! But they really want to make their baptismal date, so please keep them in your prayers! We had a few investigators and lots of less-actives at the ward Christmas party, which was awesome! The only not awesome part? Everyone got food poisoning. Sister Wilcox and I woke up throwing up, and later on the elders texted us saying they were ralphing too. We kept hearing from members throughout the week that they'd gotten sick, so basically everyone who went to the party ended up with DEATH. EXCEPT the people we invited! It's a Christmas miracle! If that's not proof God is real, I don't know what is. 

We had Zone Conference this week which was SUCH a blast! Remember my companion from FOREVER ago, Sister Peterson? We're back in the same zone! So she and her companero sang "O Holy Night" and I accompanied them on guitar. It was so fun seeing everyone since we're way out in the middle of nowheresville Wisconsin! 

**Awkward moment of the week: we went on splits with a less-active member, and she saw us on our AreaBook that has members labeled as "Active" or "Less-Active". So she looks over and sees her name under "Less-Active" and she's like "What's that?" Most. Awkward. Moment. Ever. BUT she and her family were at church on Sunday! So I guess it all worked out.  

Love you all so much! -Sister Brett

Fourth floor, last door...

The first real snowfall of the season hit yesterday! It was awesome- except for the fact Gene and Rosemary couldn't come to church because of it! The roads were too icy and they hadn't plowed them yet, so there were a lot less people at church. BUT guess who showed up right as the meeting started? CLOIS! It was such a pleasant surprise because she told us she'd been sick and wouldn't be able to make it. But she said she really wanted to come, so there she was! Everyone was so excited to see her and she always says she feels so loved after coming to church. She's the best! Do I hear water filling up the font? 

It was one of those weeks where everything seemed to completely fall through. We spent hours tracting and couldn't get in a single door. The phrase from President Uchtdorf's talk from Women's Conference was playing in my head the whole time: "Fourth floor, last door." So it's almost curfew, but we decide to knock one last door- and it's THE door! This super nice guy named John answered and we taught him the Restoration on his doorstep! We gave him a Book of Mormon and he promised to read it. He said he'd grown up Lutheran but was looking for something more. We have high hopes for him! Gene and Rosemary have been doing really well with the Word of Wisdom! They usually have a tin can full of cigarettes on their front steps, but when we went over this week it was completely cleaned out! They also haven't been drinking coffee, which is HUGE for Rosemary! Woohoo!

Saturday night we were contacting at a tree-lighting, and we met this family who just moved here from Guam! We got to talking and it turned out both of their daughters were JUST baptized in the church back in Guam! Their parents are finally ready to learn more about the gospel, and we are SO excited to teach them. They're golden!

One of the members (well, all of them, but especially this one) is so wonderful and treats us like her daughters every time we go over there. Since she knew I was from Mississippi she made me and Sister Wilcox sweet potato pie! It was FABULOUS. As we were leaving she was like, "I have something for you," and proceeded to give us a Backstreet Boys CD. I don't know what we're supposed to do with it, but I'm sure in some way we can relate the lyrics to the gospel and justify listening to some of it, right? "The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak." 

I took the most embarrassing fall down a flight of stairs at our complex. It was super icy and apparently I was so loud that the neighbors came out to see who died. Pretty sure people think Sis Wilcox beats me since I'm a little bit black and blue haha. Good thing it's too cold for anything other than heavy duty long-sleeves! #literallysoawkward

Anyway, since yesterday was fast Sunday, I want to bear you my testimony on how much I've come to know and love the Savior through studying the Book of Mormon. I love reading the Bible, but there's a spirit I feel while reading the Book of Mormon that hits me more powerfully than any book I've ever read or sermon I've ever heard. I learn so much about how to become more like Jesus Christ and how much He truly loves us. If you haven't read the Book of Mormon, I invite you to read from it, even if it's just a page, and pray to Heavenly Father to reveal to you if it's truly His word. I promise that He will manifest the truthfulness of it unto you by the power of the Holy Ghost- it will truly change your life. I'm grateful for the changes it's helped me make in my life to be a kinder, more patient, and hopefully more Christ-like daughter of God. None of us will ever be perfect in this life, but living the precepts in the Book of Mormon will sure help us get there! I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love, Sister Brett

#Light the World

I feel like I just emailed 4 days ago...probably because I did. We had the best Thanksgiving! The members are way too good to us here- we have enough leftovers to last another week! I've gained approximately 5,000 pounds. Bless whoever made skirts with elastic waist bands. 

Yesterday was great! Clois came to church and LOVED it. She said how welcomed she felt and told everyone she was coming back next week. 

FUN MIRACLE! Remember forever ago when I wrote about this dude falling out of the tree we were standing under? Welllll we found him! And he wasn't in a tree! He was selling organic herbal tea #wordofwisdomapproved 

Little spiritual thought! Friday the church came out with the cutest 2 minute Christmas video called "Light the World". It's all about being the light for those who need it, just like the Savior is. It's really touching, and I challenge all of you to watch it and share it on your social media pages- you never know who might see it scrolling on their news feed and really need it! I'm so grateful to have Christ light my life.

Quotes of the week: 

Us: "Would you like to come see your visiting teachee with us?"

Member: "Ugh, I'd rather stab my eyes out." 

Us: "Cool. So...no?" 

Member: "If you'd have told me I'd be married 4 times I would have shot myself in the head...but it's been fun!"

Clois: "Oh, good for you." 

Love, Sister Brett

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! There are so many things I'm grateful for this year. First and foremost, the gospel of Jesus Christ. My family! The opportunity to be a missionary. The list goes on, but no matter what we're thankful for, we can all share our gratitude for one thing: DESSERT. #gobblegobble  

This week has been bomb! The highlight was for sure teaching Gene and Rosemary about temples and how families are forever! We related physical temples to how our bodies are temples, and we taught them the Word of Wisdom. We were kinda nervous because Gene is a hard-core smoker and they both like to drink, but after the Spirit penetrated their hearts with the first part of the lesson, they promised they would start trying to quit! The next time we went over to see them we asked how they were doing, and they were SO CUTE, they said, "We bought this 1,000 piece puzzle to try to distract ourselves. Putting that thing together is almost as hard as trying to quit!" So they got a priesthood blessing to give them some strength, and the Spirit was so strong! I think that's my favorite part about being a missionary- getting to feel the Holy Ghost touch people and bear witness of truth. They're AMAZING! We went over last night and helped them prep for their Thanksgiving dinner. It was her first time cooking for his parents, so she was really nervous...everything looks delicious though, I don't think she has anything to worry about haha. I love that family so much. They loved church and felt super fellowshipped. December 17th can't get here quick enough! #dunk 

CLOIS! Oh my gosh, Clois is ridiculously perfect. We took one of the members who's a Catholic convert over to her and they clicked like crazy. Instant BFFs. She just found out her sister has cancer and she turned to the Book of Mormon for solace. How amazing is that? She confided in us about her husband's drinking problems and the things she's having to deal with on her own- it's funny how you can barely know someone, but you feel like you've known them forever! Or maybe we all just hung out in the pre-mortal existence. She's fabulous. Tanner is doing awesome! We've been reading the Book of Mormon together and he's really starting to understand it. We were reading Alma 32 and he was saying how much it resonated with him and that he needed to take a leap of faith and trust that God is there (wow, it's almost like we picked that chapter on purpose, what a coincidence!). Looks like he can't say he's agnostic anymore! #got'em He's the SWEETEST kid, we love him lots!! Our investigators are wonderful, no complaints whatsoever. 

This morning we played football in the snow- turkey bowl! It's been coming down all week- winter is upon us. We're about to go on a one-hour road trip down to Whitehall for Thanksgiving lunch with a member, so we gotta run.  But I am SO grateful for the restored gospel and  confidence knowing that we have a living prophet to help guide us in these tumultuous times. The church is true! Love! Sister Brett

One Year Down!!!

I can't believe it's been one year out on my mission. It's been the best year of my life! I'm so glad I get a few more months to be a missionary for the Savior (even though the last season I'll see here is winter!).

BEST NEWS EVER: As of last night we have 3 new baptismal date-sets!! Two of them are Gene and Rosemary, the Catholic family we taught last week. At our lesson they said that they had felt something really special when we left the other night. They've been reading the Book of Mormon and feel like this is the path for them to take for their family. When we asked them to be baptized they said, "Actually we were planning on doing it before the end of the year." Good thing the end of the year is next month! Being Catholic they'd never really said a prayer straight from their heart before, so when they prayed out loud last night at the end of the lesson the sprit was tangible. Then that very next lesson we taught Tanner again, and he said his very first prayer! It was so simple and pure- the Spirit was SO strong. He was so nervous and we sat in silence for about three minutes while he tried to find the words to say. Right when he said "Dear Heavenly Father," my heart legit melted and tears came flooding to my eyes. The Holy Spirit was there witnessing that God was hearing his prayer. BEST day ever. The power of prayer is real!!! 

The Hmong are still going strong in Eau Claire! Teaching them English every week has been the highlight of the transfer. Last week we had them write out the alphabet, and one of the oldest niam tais had never even held a pencil before. Elder Yang taught the rest of the class while I sat with Tais Shoa and held her hand over the pencil as she wrote for the first time in her life. After she wrote "A B C" she cried and said she thought she would never have the opportunity to learn how to read or write. It made me so grateful I was born in a country where everyone has the chance to receive a formal education. Saturday was Hmong New Year, so we went to this big event and got to meet a ton of new potential investigators! Some of the niam tais from our English class were there, and they bought me and Sister Wilcox jewelry and tried to marry us off to their sons. They're the sweetest people!! I asked one of the women in our class if Sis Wilcox could borrow some of her daughter's traditional clothes so she could look Hmong too haha- she did, and she looked fabulous! 

The #1 fun part about living in the boonies of the mission- road trips! We had a zone conference back in Minnesota which was awesome. It was a tri-zone, so I got to see some of my companions, all the Hmong elders, and people you never get to see when you're living out in Africa (aka Eau Claire). We had a really solid training on planning for miracles and expecting them to come through your faith. Fear and doubt are the opposite of faith, which sometimes is hard to get rid of (tracting is sometimes a little scary, not gonna lie!). But when we put our trust in the Lord and accept His will, then we can see real miracles. The Eau Claire elders are in a trio, so since we have rule of three, we carpool a lot. They drive this super big soccer mom van, so we always end up piling in there. But the elders have this habit of "running somewhere real quick" and then leaving us alone in the van for like forty minutes. One of those times, they were nice enough to leave the keys in the ignition for us, and we joked that it would be so easy to drive away. Then after laughing, we were like, "But seriously." So I slid over to the driver's seat and we just drove away. It felt like a game of Grand Theft Auto (I've actually never played that before, but I'm pretty sure this is what it feels like). We drove over to a Burger King- we're not that adventurous. Also we drag-raced with our bishop at 10:30 at night but that's another story for another time. Gotta go grocery shopping! #exciting 

Love, Sister Brett

Happy Halloween PDay!!

The awkward part about being a missionary on Halloween...do people think we're actually Mormon or just dressing up? Because it wouldn't be the first time I've seen that. #bookofmormonmusical We're switching our P-Day for P-night, so right after we email we're going out proselyting for a few hours and then we have the rest of the evening free! 

We met up with Fritz and John again, which was awesome! Fritz (who's a religious anthropologist) has already read a big chunk of the Book of Mormon. His friend John (who's Presbyterian) read all of Alma! What's funny is that Fritz started off the lesson with some "points" he'd noticed from reading, which were mostly questions about the geological and historical evidence of those things happening. Then something SUPER cool happened. He was talking about the unlikeliness of Lehi and his family being able to travel across the Atlantic from Jerusalem to the Americas when they didn't have those kind of advancements yet. It reminded me of the brother of Jared making barges to travel across the sea in, so we went over to Ether 2 to read the description of the boats they made. While Fritz was reading, his eyes got wide and he said "I know exactly what they're talking about." So he whipped out his phone and googled a photo of these barges the early Egyptians made to travel in, and the description is literally the EXACT same as what the brother of Jared described. AND the time period of Lehi and those Egyptians match up! So Fritz ended up answering his own question and getting a witness that there's no way anyone could have just made up a description of a boat that matched perfectly what archaeologists didn't even find out until over a hundred years after the prophet Joseph Smith translated the records. The Book of Mormon is true! John is a little overshadowed in our lessons, but he's already on board. He said, "Yeah, it just makes sense. I think it's true."  The awkward thing is that they're roommates so we teach them together, but they're on such different levels of understanding that it's hard to focus on each one individually. But they seem to be doing fine! Also, another crazy witness during our lesson was when we were saying the closing prayer, the heating unit in the room started going bezerk, and all these weird things started happening in the room. We all looked  up in the middle of the prayer (except Sis Wilcox, who kept praying like a trooper) and we were all kinda spooked. It was definitely not normal. After we closed, the presence in the room felt so icky, I just wanted to run outta there. It was a total Joseph in the Sacred Grove moment before he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ...Satan was doing all he could to scare him and distract him from saying that prayer. That's what he was trying to do that night. It testifies to me even more that this is the truth, and the adversary does NOT want them to gain that valiant testimony. Step off, Satan! 

Someone who also gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon this week is Taylor! She's been getting up early to read every morning before work and she said it's been giving her the strength and energy to get through the day. She said quoting Bro Johnson from last week, "It's not a book, it's a feeling. I don't understand everything I'm reading, but I feel it- in a good way." She knows it's true, but she's still hesitating to be baptized at this point in her life. She's aware she struggles with a lot with using drugs and alcohol as coping mechanisms, and she doesn't want to make a covenant with God she knows she'll break. It's awesome she takes the baptismal covenant so seriously and realizes it's a big deal, but if she puts her faith and trust in the Lord she can for sure overcome those bad habits and follow Christ whole-heartedly! 

Miracle of the week: So a couple weeks ago on campus, this girl walked by us and her dress was caught in her backpack, so you could see her underwear. She was booking it to class, but I would have been MORTIFIED if that was me, so we chased her down and tried to help her out. She was super grateful and told us she was getting married the next day! Anyway, we exchange contact info- fast forward to this week when we're knocking on some doors. This really nice guy answers one of them and we get to talking, and GUESS who pops her head behind him...the same girl!!! They let us in and we talked for an hour and a half! Their names are John and Krista and they're PERFECT. We're going back to teach them again later this week! Temples and eternal marriage, anyone? 

Okay I lied, one more miracle. Glenn brought his whole family to church!!! They stayed almost the whole 3 hours and were really into it. Way to share the gospel, Glenn! It's almost his baptismal date!!!! SO excited! 

We had the ward Halloween party which was WAY fun! Us and the elders dressed up as cats and mice. Apparently if you go to Chipotle dressed up in costume you get a $3 burrito, so we'll see if that's a real thing or not. We've been having a lot of lessons and a lot of miracles! Eau Claire is ready to harvest some souls. Sorry, this email is super long so I'm gonna hop off, but have a fun Halloween!!! -Sister Brett

Some Kind of Wonderful!

Can you spell e-x-h-a-u-s-t-e-d? We had a teaching appointment for almost every allotted hour the past 7 days, so I'm grateful it's P-day! #sleep. The members have been getting us lots of referrals...teaching member's friends is ALWAYS more effective than trying to find them on our own. But tracting is cool too. One of the coolest women in the ward is Sister Olson- we're teaching her friend from work who is super excited about the gospel! We taught about the Plan of Salvation and she was so wrapped up in it- it was amazing! The spirit was super strong. Later in the evening we taught Aaron and Taylor, our favorite thugs. We brought the second counselor in the bishopric with us to fellowship Aaron, but it didnt go quite the way we'd hoped. The first thing Aaron said to him after Brother Johnson introduced himself was, "Brooke? Your name is Brooke?" and started laughing to himself. Brother Johnson was clearly a little hurt and said' "Is it because Brooke is a girl's name?" And Aaron just laughed harder and totally offended him. Bro Johnson is a super straightforward and blunt guy (probably because he does have a girl's name ) so I think it was good for Aaron to have someone similar to him there to help him out. He's going to play b-ball at the church tomorrow...keep him in your prayers! (And the members playing with him). 

Other than that we've just been teaching new investigators- I'll write more next Pday about them! The work is going well and I'm excited for the upcoming week! 

Love, Sister Brett

New Kid on the Block

This week has been insane! My trainee is fabulous: Sister Wilcox hailing from Salt Lake City! She takes the term "hit the ground running" to new extremes...she's quite literally chased down people on the street to talk to them. Her fire for missionary work is unquenchable- I'm just trying to not get burned! Her first 24 hours in the field she committed 2 people to baptism who said yes! Allison, the single mom I talked about last week, is super on board and excited to make this covenant with Heavenly Father! The other is a woman named Clois. Clois is basically an exact replica of my mother (decorates her house x10 according to the holiday, wears pearls, adores her children)! Her nephews are LDS and recently got back from serving missions. She thought they were outstanding young men and wanted to learn about what they were teaching for the past 2 years, so she referred herself to us. She's SUPER Methodist- tons of pictures of Jesus in her home, wears a cross necklace, her Bible is all marked up and obviously well studied- the whole shebang. I was kinda nervous about how our lesson would go, but it was the most spiritual lesson I've ever had my entire mission. We talked about our life stories and how Christ had brought us to this point in our lives, I showed her MY marked up Bible and we bonded over scripture stories and similar notes we'd taken in the margins, and most importantly talked about the Book of Mormon and how it's an additional witness of who the Bible testifies of: Jesus Christ. When we were talking about it the Spirit got so strong, and she was probably listening the most intently that anyone has ever listened to us talk about the restoration before. She asked a lot of amazing questions, and we had an incredible conversation about all these things she had never heard before. Sister Wilcox took the opportunity to testify of the truthfulness of the restored gospel and invite Clois to be baptized. Her response was so heartfelt and faith-filled. She said, "This is all so new to me. I'm 70 years old, and I was brought up so differently. But I feel like these things are true, and I can't not follow God if this is what He's telling me to do." I have never met anyone so devout and so willing to submit to the Father's will. She did say her family would have some issues with it (her husband is Lutheran and her son is a born-again Christian), but I know she has grit to stay on the path! I am SO grateful Heavenly Father is allowing me to participate in her journey! 

Glenn showed up for church yesterday in his blue suede shoes, parrot shirt, and blue fedora. It was awesome. Everyone loved him and he stayed for ALL 3 HOURS. That's like unheard of with investigators. Can't wait for him to get in the font next month!!

Sis Wilcox is a little insane in the best way, and loves tracting. We're been doing a ton of door-to-doors and trying to find new investigators. She said her transfer goal was to baptize 10 people....#dreambig. I won't burst her bubble quite yet about Midwest receptiveness to Mormons, we'll just keep that between us :) I'm lucky to have such a motivated companion- watch out, Eau Claire! We're comin' for ya! 

Love, Sister Brett

Quotes of the week:

*during our lesson with Aaron*

Me: "Mosiah 4 is one of my favorite chapters. But King Benjamin is pretty bold, so don't freak out."

Aaron: "Sister Brett, you say that is if you don't light a fire under my butt every time you come here. If he's bold, you a dang lion."

Ginnie: "You just need to suck it up and get dunked. Get baptized, Aaron. Just do it."

Transfer Shockers!

This week was sooooo awesome! The Lord's hand was seen in everything
that happened- God is a God of miracles! Near the beginning of the
week we had a lesson with our investigator, Glen (who, by the way,
wears a different 'Trump for President' shirt every single day of the
week). We were talking about the doctrine of Christ, and Sister Grover
extended a beautiful baptismal invitation! Which, by the way, he
accepted! People have this need to feel clean and guilt-free in their
lives, and I love so much getting to be a bearer of good news and say,
"Hey! You can be completely sin free! You can have your guilt swept
away! God has provided a way for you!" You can see people's eyes just
get so big, and they want to do anything to feel that peace that comes
only from the Savior. Glen is definitely headed in the right
direction! (He also referred us to his two daughters in town he wants
us to teach- holla!).

This week we also taught Taylor, who high-key (no pun intended) is a
little bit (a lot bit) of a pothead. She's always kinda high, but she
has a strong testimony of Jesus Christ and wants to make changes in
her life to follow Him more completely. She loves the Book of Mormon
and told us she knows that it's true. We committed her to be baptized
and she said yes! She has a couple things she has to work through
before stepping into the waters, but I'm confident that with the
enabling power of the Atonement of Christ, she can do it!

We taught our first lesson with Allison, a single mom of 3 kids. We
shared the Plan of Salvation, and all of them were absolutely
captivated. They'd all grown up going to church, but she said, "I've
never seen it like this, and I've asked a lot of pastors about it who
can't tell me the answers. Why can't they explain it like you
girls...so simply." We testified of its truthfulness and asked her to
pray about it, and she said she would, but she also said she already
could tell it was the truth. We gave her a Book of Mormon and told her
the whole reason we know about the Plan of Salvation is because of
modern-day revelation. She was so excited to read it and put the Holy
Ghost to the test. I think we're even more excited to go back and see
how it went!
We also found a new Hmong investigator- zoo kawg nkaus! It's been a
whole transfer since teaching gospel principles in Hmong...I went from
teaching Hmong people 90% of the time, to now teaching them 10%, if
even that. I love Eau Claire, but I definitely miss the Hmong branch!
But teaching Vaj will be a good opportunity to keep the language up-
AND bring him closer to Christ. Obviously!

General Conference was AMAZING! I feel like so many of the talks were
geared toward missionary work and sharing the gospel. For sure a major
advocate for that :) I felt so much peace hearing the apostles share
their messages, and couldn't help the flood of absolute love that just
washed over me when President Monson got up to speak. When you look
into his eyes, you can feel in your soul that he's a prophet of God.
It's undeniable, and the Spirit bears witness of it so strongly. For
anyone who hasn't watched it before, WATCH IT! My favorite talk was by
Russell M. Nelson, who talked about how the key to spiritual survival
in the latter-days is JOY! "Adam fell that men might be, and men are
that they might have joy." 2 Nephi 2:25. With all the craziness going
on in the world, it's hard to feel at peace or feel safe or feel
whatever comfort you're hoping for. TRUE joy, (not the kind the world
tries to sell you) comes only through the Savior, Jesus Christ. When
you put your faith in Him and make your life His, you don't have to
worry about what else goes on, because your anchor is in the Lord!

So....transfers....Sister Grover and I are splitting up- I'm training
again!!! I'm so sad to not be with her anymore, but I'm so grateful
for the opportunity to have been her trainer, and know she will do
FABULOUS- not cuz of anything I did, obviously. But because she's just
amazing! #proudmama I'm so excited to welcome a new sister into the
mission, and I'm so excited for this upcoming transfer!!!

**Quotes of the week:

Sister Grover: "I can't understand him! My soul delighteth in plainness!"

Elder Swendsen: "I feel like the organ says, 'You play the piano?
Cute- I play five at the same time.'"

Also... I'M AN AUNT!!! My first baby niece was born September
30th...welcome Anna Elizabeth Brett!!! Congrats big bro!

The wind bloweth where it listeth

This week was a whirlwind! Literally and figuratively. It's the last
week before transfers, so our zone is working really hard to
accomplish our goal of finding 64 new investigators (averaging 16 per
week) before the end of the month. Sister Grover is a spiritual giant
and led us straight to the door of an awesome new potential! We walked
past the door of an apartment and she was like "I want to teach a
lesson to the people in this apartment. Right now." She stopped dead
on her tracks and just knocked! And the girl who answered was SO super
sweet, had just moved in, and invited us over for dinner this week!
I'm a proud missionary momma! She's got way more guts than me...I'm
not training her, it's definitely the other way around! She teaches me
something new every day- I'm so lucky!

The literal whirlwind came in the form of a torrential thunderstorm
that flooded a majority of the streets in town. The Lord is so mindful
of us! We were planning on going to Augusta, a town about 30 miles
outside of Eau Claire that you have to take all country farm roads to
get to. We just had a feeling we shouldn't go that day, and we were so
grateful we heeded the Spirit, because all the back roads were
underwater and we would have been stranded. It was pretty cool- all
the tornado sirens were going off, and we decided to watch the storm
from our from our front hallway- we sat outside with our blankets and
rain ponchos and watched all the thunder and lightning.  I think it'll
be one of the last summer thunderstorms before winter hits- it's
stayed in the 50s all week. I'm ready for fall!

We had a super spiritual lesson with Aaron and his daughter! We
brought a member with us named Brother Harris (whose great x10 uncle
is Martin Harris #mormonfamous). The two were definitely an unlikely
pair...they come from completely different backgrounds, but they hit
it off so quick! Bro Harris invited Aaron to church-ball this week, so
hopefully he'll get fellowshipped in pretty well. Taylor got us these
matching key chains to thank us for always coming over to teach them-
it was so sweet! They've got a lot of rough edges (blame it on
Detroit), but inside they've got hearts of gold!  Speaking of rough
edges, our other investigator Glen is the poster-child for Hell's
Angels. He's this scary biker guy with a long beard and tons of
tattoos, but he's one of the gentlest people ever. We were teaching
him about the Plan of Salvation, and he started to tear up and said he
was afraid to meet God because of the things he'd done in his past.
It's so wonderful when you can bear testimony that because of our
Savior, all of our mistakes can be made right. Through the Atonement
of Jesus Christ, we can ALWAYS repent and come back to our Father.
There is nothing we could ever do to make Him stop loving us! I think
that brought him a lot of peace, and he said he would pray about what
we taught him. Keep him in your prayers!

I AM SO EXCITED because GENERAL CONFERENCE IS THIS WEEKEND!!! We got
washable car paint and advertised it on our car...we can't see out of
the windows, but others can see what's ON them, and that's what's
important! The opportunity to hear directly from the prophet of the
whole world is such a huge blessing from God, and I know whoever hears
President Monson speak will feel the Spirit testify to them that he
truly is a prophet of God. You can watch the live streaming at LDS.org
on Oct. 1st and 2nd (the time depending on your time zone in the US).
Check it out!

Quotes of the week:

Aaron: "Y'all don't have any crosses in your church, what's that about?"
Sister Grover: "We celebrate that He's risen, not that He died. How do
you think Christ would feel if he walked in a church and saw a giant
cross on the wall? 'Thanks for reminding me guys, as if I need another
reminder of my brutal death!'"

Love, Sister Brett

A Birthday Surprise and Blessings in Disguise!

Last week was my 20th birthday, and we were able to teach a lot of
people that day! It was a birthday miracle. Really the only gift a
missionary wants is to see their investigators progress- but that's
not always realistic haha. We had coordination with our bishop that
night (or what was supposedly "coordination") which turned out to be a
surprise party! My sweet and wonderful parents set the whole thing
up...it was such an awesome night! The next night we taught a lesson
at mutual, where there was another surprise party from the youth! They
all sang and signed a card and gave us cake! Literally we have enough
cake to last us through winter- 3 other members have given us cake the
past 2 days! I love the ward so much- they're so good to us!

Our investigators are causing us a liiiitle bit of stress- probably
because none of them will CALL US BACK. Or answer the door. Or get in
contact us. It's kinda frustrating...especially because we'd been
blessed so much to find these people! So our week has been spent
mostly teaching less-active members and recent converts. Which
actually has been awesome! We went out to see a man named Vern (who
hasn't been to church since he was 12) with his non-member wife, and
it was SWEET! For one, he owns a pony farm. For two, they're super
great! He's so funny and your typical back-woodsy dad-joke trucker.
She's hecka spunky. It's the perfect combo. We're going back this week
to teach her and hopefully start the process of re-activating him! We
would have never gone out to see Vern if we'd been able to teach our
other investigators, so it was a total blessing in disguise! (But if
we could also contact our other gators in the next few days that would
be great too).  BUT Aaron and Taylor came to church yesterday! It was
awesome!

We had zone P-day last week and spent the day at the lake (admiring
it, not physically getting in it!) The weather was perfect! We did a
less exciting version of the olympics, complete with matching uniforms
for each companionship. #swaggy Afterwards all 18 elders got super
sick- probably because they all slept in the same dirty boy's
apartment and readily admit they don't wash their hands...like ever.
Gross.

Little spiritual thought! In life we're expected to deal with trials.
With trials come temptations, and sometimes we give in to those
temptations. It can be really disheartening when we keep making
mistakes in life! When we sin, a lot of times we feel like there's no
way we can ever overcome those tendencies and get forgiveness for our
past. But Heavenly Father with His perfect foreknowledge knew that
would happen. That's exactly why He gave us a Savior! Jesus Christ
wasn't our backup in case we messed up- it was already a known fact
that we would sin. Forgiveness isn't just PART of the plan, it IS the
plan. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is central to God's plan of
happiness, and we can all be partakers of his mercy and love- no
strings attached!

3 Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading
your cause before him--
4 Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no
sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be
glorified;
5 Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name,
that they may come unto me and have everlasting life. (D&C 45)

Love, Sister Brett 5 Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name,
that they may come unto me and have everlasting life. (D&C 45)

Love, Sister Brett

This Week was great!

This week was great! We got a LOT of work done! The Lord has been
preparing people here for sure, because in the last 7 days we've found
some of the most golden people I've ever seen on my mish! One of those
is Nikki and she is awesome! She requested to meet with missionaries
online, so we went over to see her and we clicked immediately! It was
actually her birthday, so she shared her b-day desserts with us
#realfriends. She was baptized in the Lutheran church, but while we
were teaching her about the restoration of Christ's church, she was
like, "Oh, I get it! It's like, the Lutheran church is almost like
saying it's Martin Luther's because he put together the teachings, but
your church is Jesus Christ's church because He's in charge of
everything, right? Someone didn't decide what to teach, they just do
what God tells them to do."  There are so few people who just
straight-up GET it right off the bat! She's amazing. Once you come
to know the truth it's not hard to make the decision to leave it behind and
follow the Savior. High hopes for her!

Sis Grover and I have been counting how many churches there are in
town when we drive by them...we're up to 22. We basically live in
Palmyra. I definitely understand how confused Joseph Smith was trying
to find a church to join- you name a denomination and Eau Claire has
it. It's insane!

Speaking of unorthodox teaching opportunities, the Jehovah's Witnesses
keep sending us letters and leaving pamphlets in our mail box, so we
decided to do the same for them! We sent them a letter attached to one
of our church pamphlets thanking them for sharing their beliefs and
then taking the opportunity to share ours- I'm not sure they were
expecting that sort of response :) We're anxiously awaiting their
reply...we'll keep you updated! #penpals

We've been able to find a lot of new investigators on the college
campus in town. We show them our super cool iPad app that has these
interactive pamphlets about different gospel topics, and it's been
really successful! These last 10 months I've never seen so many new
investigators fall out of the sky like this- I give all the credit to
Sister Grover's greenie faith! Institute also started on campus, so we
get to go to the Eternal Marriage and Families class. T-R-U-N-K-Y. I
love it. Only 8 more months, right? Just kidding. Kinda.

**Miracle of the week: someone broke into the apartment's storage unit
and stole some stuff, but they didn't take our bikes! (Actually I
don't know if that's actually a miracle or not...biking isn't my
favorite thing about being a missionary!)
Also- it POURED over the weekend, but the rain helped us find a new
investigator! #showersofblessings

**Quotes of the week:
Me: You've gotta do it sensitively, like a compliment sandwich.
Sis G: 'Your shirt is cute! You weren't baptized by proper priesthood
authority. I like your pants!' Like that?

Sis G: Why do people always paint the prophet's nose so big? It's
Joseph Smith, not Nose-eph Sniff!

Silos and Soulmates

 There's nothing more irritating and anxiety-inducing as being a
missionary who can't do missionary work. Like, seriously- nothing. As
fun as it's been to have bronchitis, I'm ready to be fully functional
again! But it's been a blast regardless, because even after being
cooped up in the apartment for a week straight, Sis Grover and I still
haven't run out of things to talk about- we're legit best friends.
Pre-mortal existence level BFFs. You're called to your specific
mission to meet specific people, and Sister Grover is one of those
people for sure.

There was one day this week we tried to go out for a few hours down to
the furthest point in our area, which is Whitehall. It's almost an
hour away on these back country roads, and the scenery is GORGEOUS. I
haven't seen that many cows since I left Mississippi! We had just a
few people we were going to try to stop by, and ended up picking up 3
new investigators! It was crazy. The referrals we tried to stop by
didn't live there anymore, but every time someone else answered the
door, they wanted to learn more about the church! It was SUCH a
miracle from God that we were able to fit in about a weeks worth of
visits in just one day. We got referrals out of NOWHERE and with the
help of awesome ward members we have a lot of new potential
investigators! Heavenly Father is definitely helping us share the
gospel with the time we're allotted in our circumstance!

With all the extra time on our hands, there's been a lot of scripture
study! It's been SO wonderful to get to just sit and read and ponder
with no time limit. I was reading in the New Testament, in Acts, and
came across a scripture that really testified a gospel principle to
me:

"13 Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to
call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus,
saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.
14 And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the
priests, which did so.
15 And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I
know; but who are ye?
16 And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and
overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of
that house naked and wounded. (Acts 19)"

Okay, it sounds pretty terrifying, but there's a lesson to be learned! It truly shows how important the proper priesthood authority of God
is. These people were trying to cast out evil spirits, but they didn't
have the authority to do so- Christ hadn't given it to them. However,
the spirit said, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know," because Jesus gave
Paul the priesthood when he ordained him to be an apostle and spread
the gospel. That's the very same priesthood Peter, James, and John
(three of Christ's original apostles)  gave to Joseph Smith, who then gave it to others, etc. which is how we have it on the earth today. It's an unbroken chain that can be traced back directly to Jesus Christ Himself. So when
people say it doesn't really matter what church you go to, this
scripture proves why it does! There are a lot of awesome people with
good intentions, but good intentions weren't enough for the people
trying to cast out spirits. The power of God is what matters! I'm so
grateful Jesus Christ has established His church on the earth today,
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, along with the
priesthood authority to preside over it.

*Memorable events of the week:*

-Sis G cut my hair and it's my fave haircut ever
-We saw a man have a seizure in the elevator with us, called 911 for
him, AND it turned out he was a member of the church AND he bought us
pizza afterwards
-Recorded a missionary makeup look complete with attached screenshots
(and possibly the video if I can get it to fit in the email)
-Sister Grover: "I've been working on memorizing scriptures! Here's
Ether 12:27: 'He shall humble himself or he'll die' Or something like
that. Close enough."


Love you all! The church is true! -Sister Brett

Nothing changed...except literally everything!

 New state and a new companion- what? Last week I found out I was
headed to Wisconsin for a few transfers! And not only that, but
training a new missionary! It's been kind of a crazy week. Eau Claire
is an eclectic artsy town with lots of sculptures and murals...it's
pretty hipster. And Sister Grover is hilarious! She's a cosmetologist,
so now I don't have to pay someone to cut my hair- #winning. She hails
from Colorado and is the biggest One Direction fan you'll ever meet.
Oh, and she's hecka bold. I definitely wasn't that confident when I
got out in the field!


 We haven't been able to see as many people as I want
to...something about the Wisconsin weather has got me super sick with
 bronchitis and I've been under house arrest with orders from the
mission doctor to stay inside and not contaminate the outside world.
But I know the Lord will help me get better so we can go out and do
missionary work! I feel terrible keeping Sister Grover from getting to
go out as much, but she's being a trooper and dealing with me!

I'm excited and nervous to be taking the lead in Hmong work over here.

Our district leader is a Hmong missionary too, and we're teaching a Hmong class Sundays after church! There's not much else of an update, but I'm excited for this transfer!

Love, Sister Brett

Double Baptisms-The Perfect End to the Transfer

Did this week even exist? So much happened, but it seems like the week
went by so quick the days weren't real. First of all, the biggest
miracle of the week- Tais Ci and Kimberly got baptized!!! I think it
was the most rewarding moment of my entire mission so far. Especially
when President Ertel cut off Ci's Shaman bracelet right before she got
in the water...watching someone literally change their entire life in
the course of a few minutes was pretty surreal. The second biggest
miracle was filling the baptismal font up in 1 hour instead of
3...there was a minor hiccup with finding someone who had keys to the
font, but it all worked out! The irony was that it was pouring rain
outside all morning, which perfectly matched the song we sang for the
baptism- "I want my life to be as clean as earth
right after rain." God has a sense of humor for sure :)

We had a branch pot-luck and talent show after the baptism. Everyone
is SO talented, it's insane! God allowed me the tender mercy of having
a guitar for a few days! A member asked me to accompany her on a song
(note: my FAVORITE song by Pink) and loaned me her guitar for the week
to practice, so I was in literal heaven. My callouses had faded after
9 months of not playing, so I was finally getting them back when it
was time to say goodbye...parting is such sweet sorrow. The
missionaries did a Book of Mormon rap in Hmong which was super fun. I
think the elders all secretly want to be K-pop stars...it was
definitely fun to pretend for the night. I'd never rapped in Hmong
before- first time for everything!

Our eternal investigator Phanida is an angel and has become my Hmong
mom while I've been serving here. She insisted on buying me an entire
traditional Hmong outfit. I don't know where else I'll ever wear it, but I'm prepared for Hmong New Years! 

Mini-update: Gabby is getting baptized Sept. 24th! We have to pass her off to the English elders so she can go to an English speaking ward, but she's golden! 

***Tender mercies: Korean BBQ, steak from a member, and getting fed
dinner every night. #foodislife

Quotes of the week:

 

Yer: "President Ertel, can I have your jacket since my boyfriend won't
give me one?"
Brandon: "I don't have one! What do you want me to do, Yer, take off my shirt?"

Sister Ertel: "Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and look at look over at him sleeping, and my heart starts racing because I still can't believe I'm so lucky to have him."

President Ertel: "If it were up to me we'd never spend any money or have any fun. I don't like her excessive shopping per se, but it makes her happy, so it makes me happy. I've learned to just pick your battles. She usually wins anyway."

Love y'all! -Sister Brett

"More Sweat, More Spirit !"

How is it Monday again? This time next week will be transfers! I feel
like this transfer has gone by SO FAST! But it's not over yet...there
are still miracles that need to happen! Speaking of miracles...our
investigator Kimberly is getting baptized this Saturday! She is cuter
than any 10 year old you'll ever meet- guaranteed. We've been teaching
her for a while and finally got the parental OK to go through with it!
We didn't think that would be happening for a while, and all of a
sudden she got the green light- so we're throwing together a service
and making it happen with a week's notice...thov Vajtswv rau peb.
Sonny is actually really progressing! He agreed to be baptized!!! We
had a rap battle lesson with the elders where we chose random verses
from the Book of Mormon and rapped them- it was pretty legit. We
talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (or in Sonny's words, "the 5
guidelines to swag-tactic living") aka faith, repentance, baptism,
receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. This
week we picked up 3 new investigators, found a less-active family from
California who wasn't on our church records, and started up a new YSA
scripture study class! Definitely a week of miracles- obedience brings
blessings!

We had an awesome zone conference where our mission president gave us
a training on doctrine. He said something so cool! "Everything starts
with a belief in God the Eternal Father, His son Jesus Christ, and in
the Holy Ghost. The rest of the beliefs of the gospel fall into place
after that. Our testimonies are based off of our personal relationship
with Heavenly Father. How can we know, trust, and love God if we don't
get to know Him?" It rang so true. Our testimonies are based first and
foremost on Heavenly Father, but how can we believe in Him if we don't
have a relationship with Him? A habit you develop as a missionary is
constantly talking with God, whether it be praying for literally
everything, or talking to Him in your heart about the little random
things that come up throughout the day. I've come to cherish our
relationship so much, and I wouldn't trade it for the world! I don't
think I would have ever learned that lesson to the extent I have
without serving a mission.

On a different and slightly less spiritual note...our AC unit broke.
So while it's already baking hot inside the apartment with the
humidity coming in from the outside, now we have nothing to circulate
it. We dragged our mattresses to the living room and are currently
sleeping there where it seems to be the coolest. The elders always
say, "No sweat, no Spirit!" I think they're referring to working out,
but I'm hoping it applies to us too. #refinersfire #literally

Fun moments of the week: zone service at Feed My Starving Children
(hairnets for life), BBQ at a member's, and an egg roll extravaganza
at Tais Kia's.

Quotes of the week:

Elder Sele: "Sister Xiong, you look tired."
Sis Xiong: "That doesn't sound like a compliment."
Elder Sele: "It's not."

Me: "I think I spend 80% of our lessons hoping I don't accidentally
teach false doctrine. I really should have gone to seminary."
Sister Xiong: "After a whole year of seminary my bishop asked me what
I learned about Jesus Christ. You know what I said? That he had a
half-brother. That's IT! That's all I remembered. You didn't miss
anything."

President Forbes: "There's no one in this whole mission, actually
probably even in the state of Minnesota, who has less musical talent
than I do. So you know it's bad when I'm telling you elders you really
sang that song weak...I've heard CTRs come in with more power than
that. Do it again.

"I'm Moving Out" dedicated to Billy Joel and Sister Xiong and me (HumpDay#halfwaythroughthemission)

All last week I was ignoring the fact that my half-way mark was coming up because I refuse to acknowledge that eventually I have to go back to the real world. As we're walking to check the mail, Sister Xiong says, "Isn't our halfway mark tomorrow?" As I'm reaching in to grab our packages I say, "No, that's definitely not for another several weeks," (or months, or years, or never). At the same time I pull out a giant box that says "Happy Hump Day! You're Halfway Done!" It was a harsh (but super sweet and loving and wonderful and AWESOME parental) reminder that my mission is going by so much faster than I want it to. But if all it takes to get a big box of cookies and treats is do what I love everyday, bring on the mile-marker celebrations! The not so great surprise for the day included getting a call from the APs telling us we had to pack up our whole apartment and move out by the next day. So we moved with a one day notice into a ratchet elders ghetto apartment in Frogtown. The smell is pretty rank, and we tried to do our best to give it the sister's touch and douse it in Febreeze, but it's not much of an improvement. The elders technically didn't live in their area boundaries, and since we don't have any, they thought it would be more mile effective if we switched. It's SO QUIET without roommates...I forgot how boring living alone was! Except it's literally impossible to be bored with Sister Xiong, so we're making the most of it...who knew cleaning out 4 years worth of dirty fridge leftovers and elder's toilets could be an adventure? 

Remember when I was left alone in Hmong work and had to teach people relying solely on the gift of tongues? One of those people was an investigator named Tais Ci. Last week we went by to visit her again, only this time with Sister Xiong, and the first thing she said was "I've decided I want to be baptized." It was so cool! She said she'd been praying and thinking about our last lesson, and she knew it was the right thing to do. She had her baptismal interview yesterday, and she's set to be baptized next Saturday! Woohoo! Fun fact: she's a Shaman ritual leader, so in order to leave her religion, her new ecclesiastical leader (aka the branch president, President Ertel) has to come take down her relics and do some ritual thing. Kuv tsis paub, kuv tsis yog Hmoob. He's so adorable, he got really giddy and said "So what do I do, I just go rip it down? Is that not rude? I don't want to do it wrong! But this is exciting!" He's Mikas too...us white people get excited about stuff like this. #missionhighlights 

We spent all of last Thursday with Tais Kia, one of my favorite grandmas in the branch. Saying she's blunt would be the understatement of the century, but lemme tell you, that G-ma is EFFECTIVE. We took her with us to see some investigators and less-actives, and her motto in life is: "Have your crap together". So she fire and brimstone preacher-ed them into getting their lives back in order and making God a priority. Backstory on Tais Kia: she was one of the first Hmong people baptized into the church back in the 80's when the first flood of Hmong refugees came from Thailand. She is the most dedicated member I know, and will do all she can to help you get on her level. She's F-A-I-T-H-F-U-L. 

Yesterday at church we taught the Young Women alllll about dating! The YW teacher called us the day before and said she couldn't make it, so she told us the lesson outline and gave us free reign! It was super trunky, but it was really fun to go over the dating standards we have and why we follow them. Commandments are there to protect us, not limit our fun! All the YW are pretty blunt (mini-Tais Kia's) so the lesson turned into a full-blown conversation on chastity. I think the problem with asking "What are the limits?" is that it implies wanting to get as close to the edge as possible without falling over. Which is dangerous, because when we teeter on the line of sin, all it takes is a little nudge for us to fall over. Remembering to be a disciple of Christ, even while dating, is a big protection that blesses not only us, but our future marriage and families. 

Alrighty, this is getting a little long, so I'll wrap up. But I love you all! Shoutout to my family: you guys are the best, I love you more than anything!!!! Love, Sister Bret

The gift of tongues is so real!

How is it already P-day again? I swear I was sitting here typing out an email  three days ago.  This week was definitely a proving ground for me! We had exchanges, and Sister Xiong was sent to another area and I stayed in Hmongland. There haven't been too many times on my mission I wanted to crawl into a hole and not come out for the day, but the day of exchanges was one of those days. I was terrified of teaching people in a language I'm hardly even close to fluent in, and I was freaking out I would say something (or everything) wrong and offend our investigators. Sister Xiong assured me she wouldn't have let me stay if she thought I'd screw it all up, so it gave me a little more confidence haha! In the end everything turned out fine! My Hmong was far from perfect, but the gift of tongues is SO REAL. I could understand for the most part what they were saying, I could respond without having to take ten minutes to form my thoughts into English and then Hmong, and I was able to translate for the other sister who was with me without too much getting lost in translation. It was so apparent that God truly cared about not only me, but our investigators who needed to hear the message we prepared. It was awesome!  Exact obedience brings miracles! We've seen so many blessings this week, including 2 new solid investigators! They're both new mothers, Hnub and Mao, and are extremely appreciative of the church's family aspect. One is Christian and the other is Shaman, but even though they're from two completely different religions, it's clear that family is the universal equalizer for everybody, regardless of race, religion, economic status, etc. We had an AWESOME lesson with Sonny! He was talking about finding a girl who would love him for eternity, and Sister Xiong and I looked at each other at the same time and said in sync, "This is the right place for that." We showed him photos of the temple and talked about the sacred sealings and covenants that take place there. I love getting to talk about the holy temple- it truly is our connection to heaven on earth! Tender Mercy: We were walking through these town-home complexes and started talking to this adorable older couple. They invited us over for dinner and wouldn't take no for an answer, so we had the BEST kabooj I've ever had! During the conversation they look at me and say "Vi lis cas koj mikas?" which basically translates to "Why are you white?". Sister Xiong choked on her food and I tried to answer seriously, but there's not much of an answer for that. They said if I married their son I would truly be Hmong...kuv tsi paub!  Also, we have a new baptismal date-set! Houa for August 20th!!  I don't have too much time, so I'm gonna hop off! This work is true, I love the gospel!  -Sister Brett

So two missionaries walk into a bar...

there's no actual joke attached
to this, except for maybe the fact we thought we were going out to
dinner with our investigator Mor and instead she took us to the
sketchiest bar in North St. Paul...that's kind of a joke. All she
wanted to do was karaoke, but no one else in town had it, so we had to
wait until our curfew (which is when when they opened it up), she sang
some quick Tupac, and we ditched it back to our apartment. But she had a blast, and we'd be lying if we said we didn't enjoy real music for a little bit too! 

Our mission has really been focusing on sacrifice and consecration this transfer. A lot of things have been distracting us from our missionary purpose: to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel. So we decided we had to stop volunteering at the cultural center- we thought it was best if we focused more on our missionary efforts
instead of using that time to talk to the grams and gramps. It was an
awesome opportunity to show them missionaries weren't scary and build
relationships with them, so if missionaries ever come knocking on
their door they'll be more willing to let them in. It was sad to
leave, but we know we'll be blessed for our efforts. We actually had some immediate blessings from our sacrifice! We met Sonny Vue, he's an awesome
new investigator and apparently famous? He was in Grand Torrino.... Kuv
tsis paub, never seen it. But he's way cool! We've already met with him twice and he always gives us ice cream #perks

I read a really great general conference talk called 'What Shall a Man
Give In Exchange For His Soul?' It says, "We are to give up all our
sins, big or small, and forget self-justifying stories, excuses,
rationalization, defense mechanisms, personal pride, judgmental
thoughts, and doing things our way." Sometimes that is SO HARD. The last thing the natural man in all of us wants to do is let go of pride and truly humble himself. But the Lord can't make us what we're meant to be if we hold back, and only give Him a piece of us. We need to hand over all our dreams and desires and hopes and say "Your plans for me are better than anything I could dream for myself." Truly giving yourself to God and being an instrument in His hands is really the only way to serve a mission. If you do it while trying to get something out of it other than the Lord's will, you're going to come home completely unchanged and unhappy. Every day is a decision to let go and let God. I'm grateful He works with us despite our flaws and imperfections :) 

The relief society went bowling, and the grandmas pretended like they
didn't even know what bowling was, and then totally creamed everybody.
Tais Kiab heckled us so hard, it was hilarious. I've never lost a game so hard. But it was one of the best moments of the week! 

Love you all so much! -Sister Brett

Quotes of the Week:

Brother Ly- "If you see a guy, and your heart starts to go 'boom boom
boom' in your chest, and you get all sweaty, and you have butterflies
in your stomach, you know you need to RUN AWAY. But if you have a guy
who makes you feel comfortable and safe, and like you're worth
something, NEVER let that one go."

"Don't pick somebody right for you, pick somebody right for your children."

"If he doesn't love God, He'll never truly know how to love you. If he
cherishes his relationship with Heavenly Father just as much as he
does his relationship with you, that's how you know you'll always make
it