A Chill in the Valley Springs Forth......... November 24, 2014

11-24-2014

Well, in comparison, it is very warm here in the Valley of the Sun. But the mornings have been around 45 degrees! Yes, it is brisk! The days are still super nice, though. I like it. The really weird thing that happens here, is that it doesn't really feel like the holiday season. Some houses have started stringing their Christmas lights along the porch, and the cactus and the palm trees, and a lot have the huge blow up snowmen or reindeer and crazy things. We have to make up for the lack of snow down here! After Thanksgiving the Christmas season will really explode! I remember last year.... But it's fun, to see all the silly and cute things people use to decorate :)

And we can't forget the missionary work here! The lights around are especially great, because it helps us as we invite people to the Mesa Temple Christmas Lights! Everyone, Christmas lights are amazing and beautiful, so you can bet there is nothing more spectacular than a beautiful majestic temple of the Lord surrounded by the spirit of Christmas- the REAL Spirit of Christmas! There's a new video coming out from the church, called, He is the Gift. It launches on November 28th, the day after Thanksgiving. WATCH IT!! In the December Ensign, nine pass along cards about the movie, featuring the real Gift of the Christmas Season (Christ!!!). What we are being asked to do (we being EVERYONE) is SHARE the Spirit of Christmas! Share a card with a friend, and you are simply sharing a video that is only a few minutes long, that will uplift anyone this Christmas Season! Please, do your part to share the message of Christ! As missionaries, we're supposed to give out 10 cards a day. Wow. We're working on it. Do you think you can give away a few cards to your friends? That is my challenge to you this week!!!! It's a lot like the video I shared with you last Easter, called Because of Him. It's so good! Here, you can watch it again:

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng

Whoot. I'm so excited.

So hopefully I didn't sound like a salesperson or anything, that would be annoying. That's just what's up in missionary work right now!

Besides that....

We read from the Book of Mormon with Sharon, which was great! She asked us what the next lesson is, and she asked us to teach it to her, along with reading the Book of Mormon with her. So, soon we'll be teaching her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Hopefully we can continue to teach her, and help her to begin progressing.

We also met with the Bentley's in Shadow Mountain ward, a less active family. Their 13 year old daughter was baptized, but her records were lost, so technically she is not a member. The mom, dad and daughter all came to church on Sunday! The daughter is accepting to us teaching her, but she is still hesitant about it. The father is a convert, who seems to be very confused about many things. Hopefully we can get the ward members involved, as well as the Elders, and we can all work together to help them to learn! We plan on teaching the daughter, Julie, in Young Women's on Sundays, since she is the only Young Woman her age, and her home is not a place that is good to teach the lessons (her father gets too involved and won't let anyone talk). So, hopefully that will go well!

We are working (or trying to work) with quite a few less actives. A whole bunch of people were supposed to be at church, but then didn't come. It's always so disappointing when that happens. But we will continue to keep working with them and loving them!

I think as missionaries (and especially as sister missionaries), what we do best is love people! As a missionary, I can truly feel a Christlike love for the people around me, and especially the people we work with. I so badly want all of them to come unto Christ and find lasting happiness! That's why I'm still here, working. I love this work, and I pray that we can all do our best to help others who may be wandering away, or who are striving to find the path. We can help them!

I love you all! Happy Thanksgiving! (on Thanksgiving we have breakfast at 8, cooking at 10 and then eating at 12, another dinner at 2, and polynesian party at 4, and one more dinner planned for sometime after that. That will be a crazy, fun, and possibly sickening day. so excited!!)

LOVE YOU!!!

Sister Hailey Brown

Hm, no pictures this week. Next week will be better!

Another Temple to Dot the Earth..........November 17, 2014

11-17-2014

Hello Everyone! Well, it's starting to chill down in the valley of Arizona. It was cold enough this morning I grabbed my jacket before leaving the house to go to the gym. The native Arizonians are pulling out the coats- I'm contemplating pulling out the long sleeves. But it still feels so nice in the day! We'll see how the weather pans out :)

Yesterday was the dedication of the Phoenix Arizona Temple, the 144th Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the earth today! I haven't had the opportunity to see it in person yet, but I will soon. I am so thankful that my mission is just a few hours away from my home! I'm probably be down here all the time :) The dedication was beautiful and amazing, and the Spirit there in the Stake Center where we watched the broadcast was peaceful and fulfilling, but not all-consuming huge. It was warm and comfortable and beautiful, so much like the temple itself. I love our prophets and apostles on the earth! And I love our temples!

This week was crazy. We had Elder Lawrence of the Seventy come visit our mission for a mission tour. The mission leadership also decided to implement a higher bar for us to reach so we can be better and do better. One of these rules is: the only music we are allowed to listen to is hymns and primary songs sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. That's it. This hurts very much, but I can just so thankful I don't have to make that three hour drive up the mountains with that rule, I would definitely fall asleep and die. So our mission is having an adjustment! We are also reading the Book of Mormon as a mission, marking all the references to Jesus Christ, before the end of the year. So we are busy busy busy! All the missionaries are working hard, and we love this work!

On Saturday we had a crazy service project for our investigator Sharon- almost all the Elders we had collected to come cancelled last minute or didn't know. Those of us who came worked hard to clean out her garage of boxes, organize it (somewhat) and have a yard sale - at the same time. Basically it was contained chaos. We even had members of the yard come and help! But we had hundreds of boxes collected over dozens of years full of all sorts of things. We threw a lot of things away (secretly) , and we wanted to take the items that didn't sell in the yard sale to charity- but she wouldn't. So after all day of work, we packed her garage full of boxes again. That was a really rough day, let me tell you!

We will continue to try to teach her the lessons, but we can't continue to help her with her boxes if we are unable to make progress. So, we'll see what happens this week!

We are still striving to find more people to visit, more people to teach. This week was rough, but this next week is going to be awesome! I can already tell :)

I love you all! My hope is that you will all live worthy to enter a temple of the Lord and make promises to Him there that will bless you and your family for all of this life, and for eternity! Always point yourself towards the temple!

Love you!

Love, Sister Hailey Brown

(photo from lds.org of the Phoenix temple)   :)

photos of mission tour

Miracles Happen When We PRAY!!!!!.........November 11, 2014

11-11-2014

So, no email yesterday due to a poorly timed medical appointment in the middle of Phoenix Mission, but here it is now! And the news you've all been waiting for... The Kasson Family did get Baptized!!! It was SO AMAZING and SO worth the looooong drive up to the mountains and back!

What else this week... we are still doing a ton of service! We are helping a family of investigators have a yard sale and clean out their house and garage and storage unit. It's scary. But satisfying as we throw things away! Yay! We also read the Book of Mormon with the Mother, Sharon, who is disabled and basically the only one we see. She is so sweet and recognizes how important the family is, and wants all of her family to be one religion together, which is amazing! So it's slow going, but that is what we are working towards!!

We are also working with some less actives, encouraging them and reading the Book of Mormon with them. We are helping a family from Brazil return to activity and make it to the temple! Sonia is Mari's mother, and Mari's husband is in the service. Mari's little baby Thomas was just blessed on Sunday! I have been helping Sonia with her family history, which is so cool! She has a bunch of documents already from Brazil, so we are entering information and getting ready to search for more! The invited us over for Brazilian food on Christmas Day, which makes me so happy! I miss my sweet Pradera's :)

I did go on exchange to the Biltmore Zone this Week! We helped out the French Sisters (from France and Tahiti), here from the Salt Lake City Temple Square Mission for a few months, on their adventure deep into the West Side to meet their investigator from the Congo. We sat in on their short lesson, and the man learning asked me to say the closing prayer. He knew I didn't speak French, but he decided to not have what I said in English translated, because he can understand simple English. I prayed simply and sincerely to our Father in Heaven, and the Spirit blessed us with His presence. I love knowing that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, no matter where you go or what language you speak! This week I felt the Spirit in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and even Hawaiian. Our Father's love transcends our mortal bodies and what we can comprehend- He will always love us, no matter what.

I love you all! And I even love the valley, even when it's still hitting 90 degrees on a warm day. I love this mission and I love my Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ- and I love Their love for us!

Love the Love, People! :)

Love, Sister Hailey Brown 

Baptism of the Kasson Family in Clay Springs, AZ, November 8 2014

Missionaries left to right: Sisters Hogensen, Brown, Carroll, Lords, and Krutsch

Dressed in White, left to right: Akira, Breeanna, Casey, Elizabeth

Three Boys, left to right: Lee, Thomas, Alex

Little Jeanie in front, only 7 years old- baptism next July!

another photo of this adorable family, after baptism! All but the youngest were baptized :)

In PV Stake, but not PV................ November 3, 2014

11-3-2014

So Hi again!

Did I mention that I'm living in the same apartment that I first moved into a year ago when I came to the valley? On the corner of Union Hills and Tatum in Phoenix. I'm even in the same bedroom! Only now we have a bunk bed- I'm on top. We don't need to talk about that. :)

We live in this apartment because the Paradise Valley stake includes Paradise Valley (I'm guessing, haven't seen it) but on this northern end we're all north Phoenix. My area here is similar to the north part of Chaparral Ward in North Scottsdale. The funny part is, that ward actually had Paradise Valley in it!

So I'm getting the know my area here, not too far from where I used to be. Shadow Mountain Ward had a trunk or treat, so Sister Entin and I switched name tags for our costumes. Nobody knew who I was and kept looking at my name tag... boy were they confused!

On Halloween the Temple invited all the missionaries to come do temple work, because they would be rather empty and they don't want us out on Halloween night anyway! So we braved our way through traffic and made it to the Mesa Temple- it was wonderful :)

We are working with several women who left the church in their youth but are working on coming back to activity, and we are doing a lot of service for Sharon, an investigator who moved here within the last few years and never unpacked a million boxes packed to the ceiling in her garage. Good times! 

I'm still getting to know my way around. We had a great stake conference this weekend, so I'll know more of our ward members next week! It's still warm down here, but I'm happy that I'm serving the Lord exactly where He wants me to be. :)

I love you all so much! You are amazing! 

Don't forget to pray! :)

Love, Sister Hailey Brown

the sisters we live with, Hermana Brandley and Hermana MacKillop. Love them!