Brown pictures

Elder Brown(not related to Sister Brown), Elder Stott who is Sister Brown's cousin that's in the mission, Sister Brown and myself.

Then some hair I cut for Sister Brown :)  She's now rocking bangs and layers! :D

Sister Brown - the Spider Killer

This is how we kill spiders in the house... Disinfectant spray works.... kinda.....

pictures from Sister Brown's camera

Pictures inside the Octopus carwash! :D

And then way back to Sister Brown's 1 month celebration!  Complete with blowing out a toothpick for a candle :)

STL Council

This is from the STL Council we had last week.  I look awkward in every picture, but that's okay

















Chinese Chicken Salad

1 head cabbage (sliced fine)
1 head lettuce (cut up)
4 Cups boned chicken or I use 2 cans chicken from Sam’s Club
6-8 chopped green onions
4 TBSP slivered almonds
1 Cup cashews
1 Can water chestnuts (sliced) drain and cut in half
1 pkg chicken ramen noodles (broken up) (put in 10 min before serving)

Dressing:
Take chicken mix from pkg of ramen noodles and mix with:
4 TBSP sugar 1 tsp salt 1 tsp pepper
1 tsp accent (I use Juniper seasoning) ½ Cup oil
¼ Cup rice vinegar

Put dressing on salad just before serving

Note: If head of lettuce and cabbage are bigger ones I usually add more oil and vinegar into the dressing

BAPTISM!!!!!!! IT HAPPENED!!!!!!!

Sister Brown, Faith, Angie (Sister Chee) and Kobe, then me!

Then add in Frank (Brother Chee) and Blue!  ...Kim isn't in any of our pictures... she wasn't there since she was picking up a friend for the baptism...

I'm obsessed...

I think people know I'm a bit obsessed with Captain America... Can you tell by the Captain America themed outfit, bear, and sunglasses??

Thanks family, Sean and Michael! :D

MIRACLES HAPPEN!!!!

Oh my heavens!  This week... I just can't even describe.  Actually, I can't describe this MONTH!  This has been an enormous testimony builder this month!!!!!!  ... I'll try to put it to words.

Here's a little thing I wrote to someone else trying to describe everything - 

"Oh my goodness, we had the biggest miracle of my LIFE this past week!  We had 3 baptisms!!!!! This family has been investigating the church for 2 years now and 3/5 of them just made the commitment and were baptized on Saturday!  Greatest experience of my life. Seriously though, it didn't come about without a TON of prayers and childlike faith.  We've been praying for this family the entire month of May and our district/zone was praying for them as well.  And we worked our tails off.  We were hoping for just 2, but then Heavenly Father blessed us with 3.  They didn't commit until the LAST week of the month!  It was crazy.  But I'm just so thankful that Heavenly Father helps us in the goals we set.  It was a scary month, because we knew we'd be accountable for the goal of 2 baptisms we set, but in the end it all worked out.  Even if there were moments of serious struggling.  Faith of a child is where it's at.  Heavenly Father is always there for us, no matter what."

Getting the Chee Family to baptism was the biggest exercise of faith I think I've had while on the mission. Like stated above, Sister Brown and I set the goal for 2 baptisms in the month of May and we didn't have a single person on date.  We set the goal because our mission president had told us that our zone would have 2 baptisms this month, and there wasn't a single person on date in the zone for May.  It was scary, but then President Adams went on to talk about having the faith of a child.  So we did.  We did everything we could, but then Satan also knew we were trying, so everything wasn't going according to plan.  The Chee's canceled on us... they didn't stay all 3 hours of church... all these super unusual things!  BUT!  then basically the last week of the month they agreed to be baptized!!!  ... Then President Adams said the twins couldn't be baptized without a parent... THEN SISTER CHEE AGREED TO BE BAPTIZED!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness gracious..., Last week was a rollercoaster!  And it all ended well :)  I'm excited to go to MLC tomorrow and put up the number saying that we had 3 baptized in May instead of 2!  Miracles happen.  We just have to work and put our trust in the Lord.

Other highlights from the week- Sister Brown and I did a musical number at the baptism!  We sang Sister Chee's favorite song Nearer My God, To Thee.  We wanted to mash it with another one, but ended up Sister Brown singing soprano solo first first, me ALTO solo second verse (that's right!  I sang alto!  And I killed it.  I was pretty proud of myself)  then we came together singing our individual parts third verse.  It sounded amazing.  I now know a song in Alto!

We also had the FUNNIEST lesson of my life!  We took our ward mission leader to the Chee's lesson and he is hilarious.  We were crying from laughing so hard.  He demonstrated how to fake conducting by writing your name in cursive.  And then he just kept going.  I can't really describe everything in an email... just know that we're still laughing about it.  And you can maybe picture Brother Connell walking across the stage as he write his name while leading a song.  Haha, it was so good.  I haven't laughed that hard in a LONG time.

We had our STL council!  It was so great :)  We planned out our upcoming Sister Conference and I'm so excited for it!!!!  There's also a possibility I'll get to teach a family in Aztec for a night!!! I would die from happiness if that were to happen.

We had a mix up and ended up having 2 dinners in one night this past week... man... that was a rough one, but we did it!

Arianna is on date now!!!! What a stellar 11 year old!!!

I got to cut some Elder's hair this past thursday before District meeting!!! That was super exciting.  THen we had some crazy trainings... some concerns that were brought up were that our "investigators" had a skinwalker in their closet and that one needed their cat to have a priesthood blessing.  We laughed, but we did learn a lot too!

And then we killed way too many wolf spiders this past week.  Sister Brown is pro.  I stand back and watch still..

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! I'm about out of time, sorry.

Hope you have a great week!!

Love,

Becca

Birthday Celebrations!

Had to change up the birthday button a little to make it appropriate.  It was lots of fun :)

The Elders gave us supplies to make the "purple cow."  Still have yet to try it out, but maybe soon...

Birthday treats - I had cheesecake TWICE! :D Happy Day!  (Sister Cardon with Deb)

And then Sister Brown and I made a fruit pizza.  Being 21 feels just like being 20... but not.  

We rearranged!

Rearranged the house! It's much better now :) 
 

Hawaiian Roller-coaster Ride...

Oh... my... heavens!!! This weekend has been a major roller-coaster of emotions!!!! This week is feeling like 2 meshed into one. 

So, we finished all the exchanges that I'm in charge of!  So the next two weeks will just be mine and Sister Brown's exchanges with our STL.  Should be a bit of a relief!  Even if we have to drive into Farmington for it... But that's okay! :D

This week we put 4 people on date!!!!!!! SUPER excited!!! The Chee twins Faith and Kobe are on date for this Saturday!!!!!!!!! We're stoked out of our minds.  Our bishop called us on Sunday (my birthday) saying that he thought they were ready :)  

... then that night our mission president called us and said that they can only be baptized if they have a parent that is baptized with them.... So, we're in a bind at the moment.  Sister Chee feels that she's ready, but she's worried about tithing.  She says she barely makes it paycheck to paycheck.  So, if anyone has amazing testimonies on tithing, send them our way! ... granted, it might be a little late if you email them to me, but hand written letters are always good :)  Those would get here before Saturday if you send them by Tuesday/Wednesday.  Yes, I know how long it takes to mail things... #missionarylife

Belinda also accepted a baptism date!  She's going to be baptized with her son September 24th, the weekend her son turns 8.  I LOVE how she is so family focused in all of this.  It's the greatest.

We watched Meet the Mormons with Deb!  She LOVED it!!!!!! She is still chugging along in learning.  She is very catholic, and we love her for it.  She came to church this past week!  Next week she's bringing her son!!! :D  

Other exciting events of the week - we sorted through moldy, nasty potatoes at the food pantry this week!  It was... gross.

Then I had my birthday!!!! Sister Brown made breakfast burritos, then we went to church, and I wore my Disney Birthday Button on my bag.  The Elders laughed at me, but I loved it.  Then we went home teaching with our bishop, then we had dinner with the Spiva family.  They are SO CUTE!  They didn't know it was my birthday (I hardly told anyone...) and when they found out they sang happy birthday to me.  It was so darling.  The kids just made my night.  And Sister Spiva had made a strawberry cheesecake!  She must have been in tune with the Spirit or something ;)

Then we went to Deb's and she had more cheesecake for us.  And CUTE decorations!  And a birthday present.  We took the Tanner's with us, a darling little family in the ward, and it was just so great.  I loved it :)

I gave myself a birthday present - I'm going to read 18 pages of the book of mormon every day so I can read it in a month.  So far, I'm LOVING this challenge!  I'm learning SO MUCH!  Like just how incredible of an example Nephi is to everyone.  Man, I love that guy.  And then I'm also realizing just how often we are like Laman and Lemuel... or, at least I'm like them more often than I'd like to be.  But really, I'm only on day 2 of this and it's one of the best things that I've ever done.  Love, love, love it.

And... that's about it! 

Oh, wait!!! FUNNY experience this week!!! 

The Elders dropped by Saturday night and dropped off a bag of cookies.  Sister Brown went to answer the door, saw the cookies, and yelled and threw the cookies back at the Elders and they were driving off.  She successfully sent those cookies into the bed of their truck.  It was the funniest thing of my life.  Can you tell she is tired of sweets?? ;)  Haha.  It was so funny how she did it without thinking.  And then we thought about it some more.. and realized it could have been a birthday present for me... haha, that just made it better.  We were dying from laughter.

Well, I love all of you! Thanks for the birthday wishes!!!

Love,

Becca

Happy Mother's Day

legos and exchanges

We share a mailbox with our neighbors... and they got a lego catalog.... I couldn't resist.  This is now on my birthday wishlist ;)  Actually, I already have a Captain America Lego figure, but accessories are never a bad idea! ;)

And then the first exchange of the transfer!  There's Sisters Orton, Brown, me and Woods.  The other Sisters are serving in Joseph City.

El Morro

Our hike that we went on last Monday.  We went to El Morro.  It was super pretty!  Might have even made the surprise hour long drive one way worth it.

Yeah, we've got a weird companionship....

The Asian got to us on this next picture.  Always blame the Asians.


Some things just don't even need words... like this next picture ;)

My companion is a boss.

Then the Asian of the District

Pictures!!!!

Be prepared for quite a few pictures this week!!!!

The chalk board we were greeted by in our Zone Training.  It was actually left from a mutual activity the night before, but it was a funny sight to see in a missionary meeting.

Then there's our spider pet we found this morning.  It's still there.  And it's big.  And we're not sure what kind of spider it is.  Please tell me it isn't poisonous...

THANK YOU for the package!!!!!!!

 I loved it so much!!!!!  I plan on putting my birthday button on my purse for my birthday :)  It's gonna be great :)

My "I'm Fabulous" shirt I got from Paul.  Paul, you were right... the shirt is pretty fantastic.  Even fabulous ;)  

And I LOVE the Minnie Mouse apron Julia made me!!!! It is very used already with all our baking we do :)

I love you!!!

Love,

Becca

Miracle of Miracles... again! :D

I love mission life.  It's the best.  And life is SO GOOD every day!!! Well... if not every day, then at least every other.  We've been working hard this week and things are going well.  It's incredible how the Lord blesses His missionaries.  We've been saying so many prayers with LOTS of thanks!

First, Monday we went on a hike with our District.  The pictures I sent should pretty much sum that one up.  It was gorgeous, and we enjoyed ourselves.  Even if it made us late for our first exchange of the transfer because no one told us the drive would take an hour....

We started the exchange madness!  And we've got 1 1/2 of the companionships done! :D  YAY!

Miracles - We took a member named Sister Tanner with us to Belinda's lesson on Tuesday.  They hit it off SO WELL!!!!! Oh it was a wonderful thing to be part of.  They're both mothers of young ones and Sister Tanner was so willing to help Belinda with anything and everything.  When we asked Belinda what we could do for her at the end of the lesson she simply asked "can you come back again?"  We were thinking OF COURSE!!!! We're hoping she gets a Sunday off soon so she can come and experience church.

Then we have another new investigator!  This week is Arianna and Deb.  We found Arianna as we were trying to visit a Less Active the Tanner's suggested we meet.  We met the less active, and then her grand-daughter was Arianna who is 11 and wants to be baptized so bad!  So we're gonna help her make it happen.

Then Deb is our mother away from home.  She is AMAZING!!!!!!!!! Oh man, I love her so so so much!!!! She takes care of us like we're family.  She's not a member of the church, but she still was the one to ask us if we wanted to skype at her home for Mother's day.  And we dropped by yesterday intending to visit her neighbor and then found her unloading her car with boxes and stuff so we seized the opportunity to serve then she fed us dinner and agreed to take the lessons!  It was a wonderful night :)  We're watching Meet the Mormons with her this Wednesday. SO EXCITED!

I gave a training in Zone Training this week on the idea of 7 minute lessons...  It went well, but applying it is difficult.  We'll get it down soon hopefully!!!

Highlight - we went to mutual this past week!  Oh it was so great!  These girls are incredible :)  We're so excited to go to mutual almost every week now that we have a new Ward Mission Leader and he's wanting to meet on Saturdays now instead of Wednesday.  So great!!!!

We made cards with Mary our 99 year old investigator this week!  Man, she is PRO!!!!! I love this lady so much.  She really is my adopted grandma.  She told us this week that she found out she has a bad kidney infection... my heart shattered... But she's promised us that she's making it to 100 so she better!!!!!

Adventure of the week - well, there were many, but one was when we were locked out of the house for a good 1/2 hour Saturday morning.  We went for a run at 6:00 and came back to find that the door had somehow locked itself behind us. And there was no spare key.  So Sister Westover and I (yes, I was on exchanges to boot) waited outside until 7:00 to knock on our neighbor/landlord's door to ask if she had a spare key.  She did thankfully and then we went on with our day.  Later that day, we got lost for a good 45 minutes.... Ugh, I hate getting lost.  It wastes such precious time.

Miracle of the week - THE CHEE'S GRABBED A TITHING SLIP ON SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my heavens, we've been praying for the Chee's to be baptized in May the entire month.  And our District has been joining us in the prayers as well.  And I invite you to join us as well... cause they are SO CLOSE!  And Satan definitely knows it.  They have had to cancel our last two lessons which they never do, and then have left church early a little bit the past two weeks as well. (well, the girls stayed the whole time, but not the parents).  Our zone has a goal of 2 baptisms this month set by our mission president and we had 0 people on date.  We're going to the faith of a child to get this done.  And it's SO SO SO close!!!!! We're meeting with the Chee's this Thursday, and we're praying for the best.  

But, that's about the update from Gallup.  Things are going well, miracles are happening every day, and I'm just loving life.  Mission life is the best.  Oh!  Then I'm also turning 21 this Sunday... crazy sauce!!!!! That doesn't feel real.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

1 Peter 3:15 - probably my theme scripture now.

Love you!

Love,

Becca

Pictures!

Sister Brown is crafty... so that translates into me becoming crafty.  Here's some cards I made for Mother's day for some members.

We had an interesting experience the other night. We went to visit a widow at her home, called her up and she said she was at a local restaurant... so she invited us over and bought us dessert.  This is what's supposedly called Banana Wontons... it barely had any bananas in it, but it was delicious.

Us in the Octopus Carwash :)

We built a blanket fort!  #companionshipunity!

Crazy busy week‏

Well, this week has been great.  It honestly feels like 3 weeks compiled into one.

First off, Happy Mother's Day again!!! It was so great seeing you yesterday and talking to everyone!  I love you all SOOO much!  And Paul, I'm SO excited you've been called to the Nagoya Japan mission!!!! That's gonna be the greatest thing ever.  I'll miss ya lots, but hopefully we'll be able to see each other during Christmas skyping... I'm still working out that one in my brain.

And Happy Birthday this week, Dad!!!! May birthdays are simply the greatest.

During Sister Brown's skyping, I was majorly called to repentance on my journal writing... So, I'm working on that now.  I wrote 9 pages last night, and barely covered the past week.

On Tuesday we went to Farmington for MLC.  It was super great!  We talked about having a goal of seeing a temple on the reservation... That's what we're now working towards!  It's gonna be such a blessing for the Natives.

I did 100 pushups and squats last monday... and was sore for 5-6 days because of it.  Did I learn my lesson?? No, I did another 100 today.  I think Mondays are just going to be my kill-myself days.

I've decided that I need to take a break from Costa Vida.  We had sweet pork salads for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.... It's a good thing my gift card ran out this last time I went.  

We helped out with the youth's fundraiser this past week!  It was super fun!  I cut lettuce for 2 1/2 hours straight... I've never seen so much lettuce!  And then our cake we brought for the auction sold for $40!  That was cool.  But then a big thing of chocolate covered strawberries went for $360......... Yeah, lesson learned- bring chocolate covered strawberries if you want to make a fortune.

PHOTOS

First is the chocolate cake we made for the youth's cake auction this week. We thought it looked awesome... then we saw everyone else's cakes.  I baked the cake, Sister Brown decorated.

A member bought us one of the cheesecakes being auctioned off.  It was so good!!!!

We've changed our dinner messages now.    Now we ask the members "what do you expect from your missionaries?"  We've gotten some awesome feedback.  Like come to ward activities, bring people to church, introduce new people to certain families at church... It's been a great trust building experience as well between the members and missionaries.  We also got a new ward mission leader this past week!  So that's going to be an adventure getting on the same page and such with him.

Spiritual thought - I'm working on Christlike attributes lately.  I've got a LONG ways to go, but here's a scripture I love and is helping me out - Galations 5:22-23.

I love you all!!!!

Love,

Becca

Hello!

Hey there! 

So, exciting news, I'm training Sister Brown!!! And she is an absolute sweetheart.  She's from Montana, and we're getting along great!  Highlight of everything, she likes to be healthy!!! So we're breaking out the salads, healthy homemade things, and everything.  Oh, and essential oils!  It's so great :)  

...just was notified that we have our email time cut short today.... the library is closing in about 20 minutes because their water isn't working... so, this is gonna be exciting super fast update!

Quote of the week - "We do weed"  ... this was from yours truly.  I was talking about how we weed people's gardens and such and then it came out like that... The teenager we were talking to immediately snickered.

We saw Elder Cook and Echohawk and their fantastic wives on Saturday!!! It was a Spiritual feast like nothing else.  Sister Brown and I are now working on extremely exact obedience.

We had a super cool miracle this past week - Miracle- After the mission tour ended, we got to our area, did 12 week and had about an hour and a half left to the night. We were praying and received the prompting to go and try Colleen, someone we said there was no way we were trying that day for miles sake. But we did, and when she wasn't home we tried her neighbors. In an hour we were blessed with 2 new investigators and a new less active. It was so good!

And... yep, that's about all I have time for!  I love you all so much!!!!

Love,

Becca

New Companion!!!!

Everyone, meet Sister Brown!  She's a sweetheart from Montana!  We are LOVING being together so far!