More Cake?

This week was awesome! We got to go see Lamb of God, an oratorio about
the ministry of Christ. It was so good! We listen to the soundtrack
all the time, so when we got the chance to go we were flipping out!
Two of the members in the ward played in the orchestra. We brought an
investigator, Deon. He's Hindi, but he wants to be baptized! He's
great. And always smells like curry. Our other investigator, Tony,
came to church again yesterday! I can't remember if I've written about
him, but his girlfriend asked us to start teaching the missionary
discussions to him. They want to get married, so at first he was kind
of obligatorily taking the lessons. But after meeting with him a few
times, he's really understanding everything and getting all of his
"questions of the soul" answered. The catch is that they travel all
over the world doing humanitarian work....and they leave next month
for the Philippines, then Africa, then India...indefinitely. So we
need to set a baptismal date for the beginning of April before they
leave! He's totally ready to take that next step and make the
commitment to Heavenly Father to follow Him. Our date-set Margaret has
gone completely MIA. Last we heard she was still living with her
boyfriend and not keeping the Word of Wisdom- probably why she's
flaking on us. Keep her in your prayers! We've also been going to see
a part-member family, the Norton's. She's a returned missionary, but
she married a non-member. They've been trying for a long time to get
her husband to join the church, but he wasn't really having it. But
the other day after they had us over for dinner, we talked about the
importance of gospel in families- and he agreed to take the missionary
discussions!!!! Maybe the time is finally right for him.

The members in this ward are such good missionaries! In Relief Society
yesterday we taught the first missionary discussion- The Restoration
of the gospel. All of the women committed to give a pass-along card
and share the gospel with someone this week! The Lord has been
blessing us with lots of opportunities this week to share the
Restoration with people.

Sister Turner likens the Bible and the Book
of Mormon to cake. The Bible is like a piece of cake. The Book of
Mormon is like another piece. Who wants to say no to more cake? You
can't have too much of a good thing!

Sidenote: The high school kids in Eden Prairie drive nicer cars than
I'll ever even pretend to own. They're so rich they wear crocs with
socks because they just don't even care. And their houses have
sculpture gardens in the front yard. But they're great for contacting
while we're at parks by the school!

I hit my 4 month mark this week! It doesn't feel like I've been out
that long. I still feel so new, but they've already had 3 new sets of
missionaries come in after me. I have so much to learn, but I think
I've gotten the hang of being a real missionary! It's been the best 4
months of my life- no exaggeration.

We had the best miracle! We were tailgating into someone's apartment
because they've gone MIA, and all the doors were locked and no one in
sight to let us in. We said a prayer asking that we could find some
way to get in within the next five minutes. Just as it hit the five
minute mark, we saw a man doing his laundry through a window. We
knocked on it and motioned for him to let us in, and he did! It was a
MIRACLE. God is so good! Prayers sometimes get answered in strange
ways. But whatever works!

**Tender mercy of the week: My favorite song, Señorita by Justin
Timberlake, played at a gas station while we were filling up, so I got
to listen to it for a hot second!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week as we get ready for Easter. Go check
out the powerful videos especially FOLLOW HIM  on  mormon.org 


Sister Brett

The Great EP

This has been a crazy busy week! Sister Peterson and I went to Benihana our last night together to celebrate the best 6 weeks. There was a family at the table with us celebrating their daughters birthday and they were super nice! They asked us to take a photo with them before we left. (Spotted: rare Mormon missionaries in a predominately Lutheran community). Transfer miracles! Sister Turner and I picked up 3 new investigators in 2 days. CRAZY. 2 of them came to church! Inspired finding is a real thing. I LOVE this area. The "ghetto" in Eden Prairie is the Eden Prairie of North Minneapolis. Even the lower class area is called RICHfield. Our apartment has a chalk wall! And a fireplace. And a gym. And a covered garage. And a washer/dryer IN our apartment. I don't even know what to do with myself! Too many amenities. In comparison we were really slumming it in Minneapolis haha. Sister Turner is a powerhouse missionary! Spiritual levels through the roof. She's extremely bold, and is a great example of what an urgent missionary is. Being exactly obedient with Sister T isn't hard, because she'll definitely let you know when it's time for lights out. When 10:30 comes around, it doesn't matter where you are or what you're doing- the lights go OUT. But it's great to have somebody reinforcing even the little things like that. Through small and simple things, great things are brought to pass! 

I've finally gotten over my influenza! The mission doctor banished me to isolation to stay in the apartment so I can get well, because apparently hanging around In the cold with a fever is frowned upon, but ain't nobody got time for that as a missionary. I got a priesthood blessing, and almost immediately I was ready to get back to work.  I stayed inside during the morning when it was colder, but later that afternoon I piled on the scarves and we went contacting! I'm so glad we did, because we found a lot of awesome people to follow up with later this week. The priesthood is such a blessing to have! And the members here are incredible. At the slightest sign of a sniffle, they've already given you herbal tea, bags upon bags of cough drops, a humidifier, and the promise they're on call to bring you whatever you need, whenever you need it. I LOVE THE EDEN PRAIRIE WARD. I'd write more, but we're going to play basketball at a member's giant indoor b-ball court. I didn't stutter. Full size basketball court inside of their house *cough, palace*. On that note, have a great week! -Sister Bret

The results are in ....

Just got the transfer email sheet...I'm being transferred to Eden Prairie! Goodbye ghetto, hello high rollers! Some legitimate sadness in that. I'm going to miss Sister Peterson like crazy, being with her was the most fun I've ever had on my mission. But I'm getting her last companion, Sister Turner, and I hear fun stories about her all the time so I know she'll be great!
 We saw a 60 degree day last week! It was GORGEOUS. Everyone was
outside enjoying the weather so we had a ton of contacting
opportunities. We hit up all the lemonade and hot dog stands in
people's yards. I got scammed out of like $20 by little hoodlum kids
to keep buying their hotdogs. Every time we handed them cash we
low-key slipped in a pass-along card. Thugs. Then the next day it was
snowing again. #bipolar

We went to meet with a media referral named Latisha. We knocked on her
front door and she motioned for us to come to the back door. Sketch.
Then we go around back and there's like 20 bags of dirt and mulch.
Sketchier. At this point I'm thinking she's going to shank and bury us
in her yard and no one will ever see us again. And then we go inside
and have the BEST lesson ever. She loves God and wants to build a
stronger relationship with Him. We gave her a Bible and Book of Mormon
and she said she'd read and pray about it! Later that day we met with
Amy again. I don't think I wrote about her in my last letter, but
she's a single mom of 6 kids. She's amazing, but sometimes I think
she's just using us to clean her house haha. Every time we've gone
over we've cooked and cleaned for her and babysat her kids. We do get
to teach a little bit (when she's not distracted with her newborn),
and she said she'd pray about what we've been sharing. They're an
adorable family and I really hope they make the decision Heavenly
Father wants them to! We checked up on some YSA less-actives and found
ourselves at a frat house full of shirtless dudes. I'VE BECOME SO
AWKWARD. Sister Peterson did all the talking and I literally just
stared at the ground. I can talk to anyone, but when it comes to
semi-attractive people of the opposite sex I turn into such a weirdo.
Please send help.

I don't know what happened this week in the real world, but
Minneapolis is full of "Black Lives Matter" signs and posters- even
more than usual. I saw a headline on the local news for about 3
seconds in the nursing home about a teen in town getting shot, but I
don't know if there's any correlation between that and all the
protestors around. Not being able to hear information about stuff is
hard! I have no idea who I'm even going to vote for because I
literally don't know anything that they're saying! #missionlifeprobs.
In other domestic people news, the baby fever is unreal. We've been
teaching a lot of people with babies and they are soooo stinking cute!
I didn't even care when one of them puked on me. Mom Prep 101. I've
also become the man in the companionship- I killed my first spider on
my own! (Well, by "on my own" I mean with the help of hairspray and a
Swiffer). We also deep cleaned our apartment in case one of us left
for transfers...I think I inhaled a super unhealthy amount of mold in
our bathroom. We're learning to crochet from an old lady in our ward
who is literally Cruella DeVille. She makes you cry, but she can also
make you a  nice scarf to wipe the tears away.

Why did the turkey cross the road?

This week was such a spiritual high! It was amazing. We saw Carissa again; she was pretty stressed with midterms coming up and had a ton on her plate, so we were just there for her so she could rant a little and know that we care about her. She took us to the game room in the dorm and we played foosball and pool. Can I reiterate how much I love her? Shoutout for winning 2nd place in their student film festival on Friday! She's a really talented screenwriter.

We had a stellar zone conference! There was a lot of amazing training that went on. We had a really inspiring training on consecration and obedience as a missionary. Sometimes mission rules seem silly, but we miss out on blessings and sometimes even revelation when we're not being obedient. I'm still working on being a completely consecrated missionary, and I'm not sure that's even possible. But I know the Lord sees our efforts every day. They asked us to sing again at conference, so Sister Peterson and I sang a hymn in Spanish in hopes that President Forbes will transfer us to Spanish areas, haha. We'll see if it works! 

Afterwards Sis P and I went to Culver's for ice cream (almost as good as Andy's frozen custard back home) and Sister Cupkie showed up out of the blue (#stalkerstatus) and payed for everything for us. Let me tell you something about the Cupkies- they're flipping legit. Both of them are in the FBI and did several tours in Iraq and could probably- no, definitely- kill you with their bare hands. They're the kind of people that if you called them in the middle of the night to help you bury a dead body, they'd literally cover your tracks- granted you're on their good side. Sister Cupkie told us we were her favorite missionaries though, so I think we're covered. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. He's going to teach us self-defense so we can fend for ourselves in North Minne. Holla! 

The sweetest woman in our ward, Sister Young, watched her husband pass away this week. I remember when she told us that his health was failing, and that was near the end of my first transfer. So all in a matter of about a month he made a rapid decline. We went to see him in the hospital, and I remember her holding his hand and staring at him the whole time we were there, like she was taking in every second she could with him. After the funeral she had us over for dinner- that woman is a saint. If my husband had just died, there's no way I would make dinner for missionaries the same day. She's so strong, and knows she'll see him again. I have a testimony and love of the Plan of Salvation, God's plan of happiness for all His children. Just like our birth into this mortal life is a necessary part of the plan, so is death. It doesn't make losing a loved one easy, but it gives us peace to know that families can be together forever, even after this life. I know with all my heart that Brother Young is in a much better place and is still watching over his sweet wife, and will until they're reunited again. 

" From an earthly perspective, physical death may seem like an end, but really it is a beginning, a step forward in Heavenly Father’s plan. At death, your spirit will leave your body and go to the spirit world, which is a place of learning and preparation. In the spirit world, your memories of this life will remain with you.

Death will not change your personality or your desire for good or evil. If you choose to follow Christ during your life on earth, you will be at peace in the spirit world and will rest from your cares. 

Heavenly Father knew that many of His children would never have an opportunity to learn about Jesus Christ during their lives and that others would choose not to follow Him. Because He loves His children, God provided a way for those in the spirit world to learn about His plan, have faith in Jesus Christ, and repent. Those who accept and follow Jesus Christ will have peace and rest." 

Teaching about this incredible and loving plan is one of my favorite parts of being a missionary. I can't imagine going through life and not knowing where I was going after this life, or if I would ever see my loved ones again. I know we were put in our specific families for a reason, and I love mine more than anything! Shoutout Brett fam! 

Until next week, Sister Brett 

*Highlights of the week: baking a year's worth of cookies in a day, waxing Sister Peterson's legs, getting to see ten minutes of Inside Out at an investigator's, and almost hitting a turkey in the middle of the road

Love (and the Spirit) Are in the Air

Valentine's Day is one of the best times of the year- unless you're
single or a missionary. *Shout out to Sister Teuscher, or I guess
Emily now (weird), who HAS BEEN HOME NOT EVEN A MONTH AND ALREADY HAS
A BOYFRIEND (cough, ring by spring, cough).* Levels of trunkiness and
bromance among the elders skyrocket. But while love is in the air for
some people, the spirit is definitely potent right now with our
investigators! We're still teaching Paul, aka Seth Rogan. He's so
funny and has so much faith but doesn't even realize it. We always ask
him to pray and build his relationship with God, and he says he
doesn't get any answers or signs that He's listening, but he keeps
trying anyway. I know if he sticks with it that he'll find the answers
he's looking for in God's perfect timing for him. Barbara is doing
really well! She's cut down to smoking just once a day. We are SO
proud of her! Coming to church has really been helping out. She's
completely recharged afterwards and has such a desire to keep on the
path. She's going to start going to the church's addiction recovery
program, so I know that will definitely be a huge help. Carissa is
still the coolest person I know. She and her boyfriend are literally
the cutest thing. Sometimes I forget we're even teaching her anything
new because she takes everything in so well and already has such a
sound understanding of the doctrine. Please keep them in your prayers,
as well as the investigators we didn't get a chance to see this week.
#dissapearingacts

We volunteer at a food shelf called STEP, and it's an amazing program.
People who can't afford to buy groceries for their family come in and
take whatever food they need. The same people usually come in during
our weekly shifts and I've finally been here long enough that the
people who come in finally remember me! (Everyone loved Sister
Teuscher so much, they're like, "Who is Sister Brett, she's not cute
or from Utah, get out.").  One of the old guys who came in shouted
when he walked through the door, "Where's the gal from Mississippi?"
and it legit made my day. One of the people who came in was a super
nice Jehovah's Witness. She said she wanted to give us a pamphlet from
her church, and I told her we would take it, but only if she took one
of ours. She agreed and I gave her a Restoration pamphlet. #success.
When she left Sister Peterson started low-key freaking out saying that
JDubbs get excommunicated if they take materials from other churches.
Oops. Did you know they don't celebrate holidays or birthdays? It was
the saddest thing I'd ever heard. One of the other volunteers is Mike,
who's the most sarcastic, affable Jew you'll ever meet. (his wife left
him because she decided she was a lesbian. The way he tells it makes
it sound like best story ever. I'm totally coming home and making a
screenplay out of it). He asked us to show him what we usually talk
about with people. He looked at the Resto cover with Jesus on it and
said: "We're not really getting off to a great start with the
pamphlet." Reason #374 we don't try to convert the Jews. But I've
turned into that super annoying missionary who talks to EVERYONE that
I always said I'd never be- too late to turn back now #noregrets :)

We went on exchanges this week, so I got to go to a new area for the
day. It was about 30 minutes outside of Minneapolis, so I saw a
glimpse of what life outside the city is like. One of the houses we
went to reminded me so much of home- it was scary similar. There were
deer heads and mounted fishes all over the walls, complete with
bearskin rugs. I say house, but it may as well have been a hunting
lodge.  Dad, you and Brother Jendro would be best friends. That night
we had dinner at a member's and the husband served his mission in LA
and one of his companions was from a town fairly close to mine in
Mississippi. The world is so small!

We visit Sister Fisher in the nursing home every week, and I swear,
she's so close to the other side that angels are literally pulling her
over- like, quit procrastinating and get over here, we don't have time
for this. But she's pretty stubborn! She's died 3 times and they've
had her funeral planned for months. Definitely a testament to the
power of the priesthood, because every time she's on her death bed and
gets a blessing, she's healed. The veil is so thin and the spirit is
always really strong around her. She's such an incredible woman and
talks to everyone about the gospel. Without her we would have never
met Mercy- Sister Fisher is an angel. I know she's still got some kind
of work to do on this earth before it's her time to go home.

Luckily we didn't have any traumatizing experiences in North Minne
this week. But the week up ahead has plenty of opportunity for that! I
pronounced 'ask' like 'axe' so it's really all downhill from here.
I'll sign off with a quote from an amazing study book filled with
advice from Latter-day prophets, called 'Teachings of Presidents':
 "If thoughts make us what we are, and we are to be like Christ, we
must think Christlike thoughts. Our thoughts should be on the Lord. We
should think on Christ. Let our personal lives, our homes, and our
work performance reflect our Christlike character." -Ezra Taft Benson.
It really made me think about how often our thoughts aren't what we
should be focusing on. Our thoughts become our actions, so naturally
if we're keeping our thoughts Christlike and pure, our actions will
mirror that. The presence of the spirit will be noticeably stronger in
our lives if consciously make the effort to keep our thoughts turned
toward the Savior and how to be more like Him. It's an ongoing,
everyday effort that will become part of our natural thought process
if we make a habit of thinking more like Christ would. Until next
week!
Much love, Sister Brett

Surviving the Compton of Minnesota

This week has been great! We found a lot of awesome people and had
some inspired finding experiences that prove how much the Spirit truly
guides us. One of those people was Carissa, a super cool college
student majoring in anthropology. She was just doing research on our
religion for a paper, but became genuinely interested. Her dad is a
preacher and she's incredibly spiritual...she's just awesome! And too
hipster to function. It's so weird to be back around college kids- I
have no idea how to act! "Back in the day when I was a hoodlum in
college, just like you....three very long months ago..."

Our cars got grounded on Wednesday because of all the snow, so we had
to entertain ourselves by watching whatever church DVDs we could find
in our apartment. I'm starting to have withdrawals from not being able
to watch rom-coms, but we found the Joseph Smith Papers, and the
letters Joseph and Emma wrote to each other were pretty romantic, so
it was a nice fix!
I drove in my first blizzard! They hadn't grounded our cars yet, so we
inched back home going 5 MPH trying not to die. I don't think I'll
ever get used to driving on ice and snow. Especially when they don't
plow the roads in the ghetto and we're trekking over actual Mount
Everest. Sometimes Sister Peterson and I blast the heat, crack the
windows and pretend we're back on the west coast...until it gets too
cold and we have to roll the windows up. (And the fact rolling around
in G-town with MoTab blaring attracts too much attention). But we can
pretend for a little bit! There's this Satan box called Tiwi stuck to
our dash that monitors how we drive. It yells at you for speeding and
aggressive driving...Tiwi and I aren't friends. Driving in LA didn't
prepare me for the missionary standard of driving. Don't worry mom, we
only drag race on P-Days :)

We went to see a referral this week and she answered the door
naked...we asked if Clorey was home and she just stood there staring
at us in the nude. It was pretty uncomfortable. Afterwards we saw
someone trying to break into our car, probably because our Tiwi looks
like a GPS. But he saw us coming back and got in his car and drove
away. In that same neighborhood later on we saw a drug deal- the car
had bullet holes in the back window- that was pretty sweet. The zone
leaders found out how shady it is, so sisters might not be going back
into that area anymore. I wouldn't be too devastated, except for the
fact our best investigators come from there. Our teaching pool would
become a shallow kitty pond!

Leaning on the Lord more has made all the difference this week! Being
in the refiner's fire is never easy, but it's always worth it in the
long run. Just like early morning workouts- in the moment, do we enjoy
Jillian Michaels yelling at us and forcing us to plank till our core
literally rips in half? In the words of Sister Peterson: "I don't
enjoy scary buff women yelling at me at 6:30 in the morning, nor at
any point in the day." But when you step on the scale and see the
results, you're grateful she kicked your butt for those 30 minutes. I remember at the MTC
Dallin H. Oaks talked about being grateful for your trials. I'm
finally understanding that more out here. They make you who you're
supposed to be. Love you all! -Sister Brett

Fear Not Little Flock

You know those mornings where the alarm goes off and you think, "The
day hasn't even started yet and I'm already over it."? That was me
every single day this week. It's like Satan held off on all his tricks
until this point on my mission and saved them all for this week. Since
we didn't die being hit by a drunk driver, now he's trying to do us in
in every other way possible! Except my companionship- Sister Peterson
is the funniest person and knows how to laugh off every situation,
without her this week would have been impossible! I spent a lot of
time on my knees and just asked for a miracle. I didn't care what
kind, just some sort of a reprieve. Not even ten minutes later the
Cambodian elders called us with a referral- her name was Miracle. It
was such a tender mercy! And shows God has a sense of humor (I knew I
had to get it from somewhere!). There's opposition in all things, and
we'd never know how good things are unless we have to go through some
tribulation. I've been reading a lot in Doctrine and Covenants (which
for my non-Mormon friends is additional revelation the Lord gave
Joseph Smith and his apostles during their lives, which also applies
to our lives today) and it's really been comforting to read! One of my
favorite verses are:

"33 Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye
also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your
reward.

34 Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell
combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot
prevail."

-D&C Section 6

I was definitely relating with that this week! I know that because
we're on the Lord's errand, evil can't prevail in the end- but it
doesn't mean Satan won't try! A lot of our investigators are
struggling with challenges, and it's a universal thing that life is
hard, but when we put our trust in the Savior, we can have peace- not
as the world giveth, but as He giveth.