Getting Brown and Dirty

December 2, 2013

I am really enjoying serving with Hermana (J) Brown! People are still trying to figure out how to tell us apart. Hermana Obscura Café y Hermana Clara Café, Sister Brown Brown and Sister Brown Blonde, Sisters Brown, and Sister Brown closest to me Sister Brown furthest from me. People are having some fun. Most people just look at us in the eyes and say Sister Brown, so just to mix things up a bit, we are both going to try to not look at the person who is directing and who will be calling on one of us to pray. We are curious as to what they will do or how they will differentiate us.  We also had some fun with dinner one night. It wasn't the healthiest meal.... but it was all BROWN! (don't worry we didn't eat the cake and I ate a healthy orange... it is really close to Brown).

the Brown dinner(cooked everything brown)HA!HA!

 

Have you heard anything about fisher cats? Apparently they make a noise that sounds like a woman screaming. Scary! I guess they live here... but maybe not so much in the area where we live.

this is a fisher cat.

 

I tried to make some flan for the first time. We haven't tried it yet but it looks alright, other than the fact that it cooked at a bit of a slope.

Karee's flan she made

 

There is a woman in the ward that has some health problems that we said we would help. It just so happened that we told her we would help her rake her leaves on Wednesday... a rainy day. We went regardless. It wasn't that cold and the leaves still rake up when they are wet. We were able to get her whole front yard raked and bagged. We got pretty wet. But it was really fun and a great time for Sister Brown and I to get to know each other. I like to play the two truths and a lie game with her. She is really good and diligent at speaking Spanish. So we mostly speak it when we are together. The members think it is pretty neat.

A few weeks ago a member in another ward called us and told us about a friend that she has. This friend, Carrie, went to a stake woman's conference that they had a few months ago and really enjoyed it. So she wanted us to see if there was a time that we could meet her and tell her a little more about the Gospel. We contacted the friend, but she didn't seem too interested in learning more. We have kept in contact with her over the weeks and she really enjoyed how much we cared about how she was doing. On Wednesday we finally met her! We had offered a few times to come to her house to help her with a few things because she has a few health problems. Wednesday she finally took us up on the offer and we helped her make some Thanksgiving preparations. She was so grateful and happy to finally meet us. She talked and talked. She invited us to her Christmas eve party and also to come over again on Friday night to help her with some cleaning and getting some Christmas decorations set out. Her mop was broken but I insisted on mopping her kitchen for her. I don't know if I have ever scrubbed a floor harder. I wanted to let it shine because I knew it meant a lot to her. She was so happy when we had finished the small chores. Just before we were leaving we asked her if she would be interested in having some women from the ward come over to visit with her (visiting teachers). She loved the idea and mentioned that she didn't know very much about the "rules of the church". Sister Brown picked up on that and told Carrie that we as missionaries have been called to teach people more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that we would love to help her learn more if she was willing. She loved the idea. So we will be going back this week and teaching her a little about the church and more about how she can come closer to Christ. I am excited!

Yesterday we were given a very special assignment. I have been waiting for the green light on this assignment since I got here and yesterday president gave us the "Green light!" President Packard came to our ward and bore a wonderful testimony of which I was pleased to translate. He talked about personal revelation and how it is up to us to search after these experiences. Then we had a meeting with all of the missionaries in the Merrimack area and the Nashua area. He basically told us that we are going to be working strictly with the Hispanic people (who mostly live in Nashua ward) and nothing else. The stake president still needs to talk with a few of the leaders, but the Nashua area Spanish group is a go. Sister Brown and I knew this was coming, so for three days straight we were in Nashua looking for some former investigators and some of the Spanish speaking members. Now we have a whole lot of work to do. We are supposed to have a written plan of how we are going to start this group. Groups aren't actual units and will allow the youth to still go with the rest of the youth. But they will have their own Sacrament meeting in their native language. Apparently it will be the first Spanish church in the area. So President wants us to advertise for it because there are a lot of people who were really active in their churches but they don't feel comfortable in English congregations.

We have a lot of work to be doing and Sister Brown and I are excited to get to work. The Browns are going to be going to town!

I love you all!

Love,

Hna. K Brown

 

PS

 We went to the Lopez family for our first Thanksgiving meal. All of the family was there except for the children who are on missions. There were 15 pies that I counted. I tried to keep my plate on the small side because I knew that we had a few more meals to eat still. This was such a fun family to be with. They played music and danced after they ate and a little while they ate too. They are all so very talented! They made sure we were well fed and well entertained

Thanksgiving with the Lopez family

15 pies! Wow!

Sis Ducharme rented a building to host a few families and the sister missionaries for Thanksgiving dinner

Our dinner was with the Hensch family, I didn't get a picture with this plate, but it was really yummy! Notice I buttoned up my sweater because I sprayed some blueberries on my nice white shirt. The Hensches had a lot of fun as well, as you can see. I felt very much at home because after we feasted we played a big game of phase 10 just like we normally do at home!