Feb. 3, 2014

Well I literally just found out 5 minutes ago…I’m moving!!!! I am going to Bracknell!!!! I know that means nothing to you guys, but I am pretty excited! My companion will be Sister Pink! She’s from Australia and she is really awesome so I’m excited! I am so sad that I will be leaving Guildford, and especially Sister West but I guess I am needed elsewhere. Bracknell isn’t to far away and I know nothing of what kind of area it is, but we will see I guess! As soon as I get my new address, I will let everyone know!

 

This email I wanted to talk about Lara. She was baptised in November. Through out the entire time I have known her she has been dealing with a custody battle with both of her children. This week she found out that both her son and daughter are leaving to the USA; for good. This means she will probably not see them for a long, long time. On top of this, she has struggled with severe depression, to the point of suicidal thoughts (probably part of the reason she is losing the kids). We met with her on Thursday, she put on a smile, tried to sound happy and optimistic. She started crying…she looked at us and said “I just want my daughter to find the gospel…” My heart ached. This woman has been through the hardest trial, that I can’t even imagine going through, and yet she focused her thoughts on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the hope that it can gives to us. She is still really struggling and was hospitalized on Sunday. But I know that through the Atonement, she will be healed. 

 

Just know that the Savior loves you, He knows you PERSONALLY. He has felt your pains and is willing to take your burdens. I have seen and felt His love. No matter what the trial, big or small, cast your burdens on the Savior. 

 

I love this Gospel, I love the hope it gives me. I HOPE everyone has a wonderful week!

Lots of love

Sister Brittain xoxoxo 

Feb. 24, 2014

Hiya!

 

Well this week went by super fast…Probably because a lot was going on.

We went on exchange. I went to Reading, which is a really busy city, with lots of people and our Sister Training Leader is nuts and literally stops everyone. It was great though because an AMAZING miracle happened.

We had just finished looking for a few potential investigators a little early so we headed back to the train station. We sat next to a woman named Esmeralda as we waited for a delayed train. The most prepared woman ever. I have never just met someone like on my mission before. She asked us for the Book of Mormon and where to begin reading! She had questions on families and more. It was awesome. She said she had been searching for truth for over a year, a place where she could raise her to children. Even though I won’t be teaching her, miracles happen. Tender mercies of the Lord!

 

Another miracle that happened on exchange was Sharon! She is the partner of a less active member and Sister Pink taught her while I was gone. The teach went great and she has a baptismal date 🙂 Apparently Sharon is super ready for the Gospel. I haven’t met her yet, but I’m excited!

 

We had a zone conference on Friday, and it was good as always. I got to see Sister West and she had great news for me! Mandy is doing amazing!!! She even went to church and loved it! She said Mandy got up at 630, just to be ready and look super nice! And now she’s even thinking about baptism! Yes, I’m talking about crazy, drunk (but now sober) Mandy! Now THAT is a miracle. 

 

Church was normal yesterday, except for the fact that President Millar showed up. That was a surprise. He is such a great guy though, and apparently the oldest mission president and the nice age of 72. Fun fact about him for ya. I was just glad I didn’t have to teach the Gospel Principle class with him there… We have interviews with him this week so that’ll be cool.

 

Anyway, this was a pretty good! I would just like to share our Mission’s “song”. Its considered very special to the English people. It’s called “Jerusalem” It was written after a theory that Jesus Christ walked on the green hills and land of England during his ministry. I encourage you to look up the history of the song, it was written by William Blake.

 

 

And did those feet in ancient time. Walk upon England’s mountains green: And was the holy Lamb of God, On England’s pleasant pastures seen!
And did the Countenance Divine, Shine forth upon our clouded hills? And was Jerusalem builded here, Among these dark Satanic Mills?
Bring me my Bow of burning gold; Bring me my Arrows of desire: Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold! Bring me my Chariot of fire!
I will not cease from Mental Fight, Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand: Till we have built Jerusalem, In England’s green & pleasant Land

 

 

I love it. I love England. I love the people. Even if they can be grumpy when it rains…which is all the time 🙂

 

 

Have a great week!

Love

Sister Brittain xxx

Feb. 17, 2014

Hiya!

 

Well this week was pretty uneventful…Full of rain and wind. Seriously, SO windy. It seemed like a hurricane at some moments. But with the weather being dumb, it made our work a little difficult. 

 

Here are some highlights from my week:

 

We met with crazy Craig. We were waiting outside McDonalds when we saw him, we called for him and he was like “oh I thought we weren’t meeting til Thursday?”…”Craig…today is Thursday” Sigh… It was dark and cold but we were determined to try to teach him so we just sat on a bench outside. He had his dog with him and he was barking and squirming the whole time.. WORST LESSON EVER. He ended up at church again, this time he brought his creepy brother. We are pretty sure they are just really sketchy and want money from the church. Soooo we won’t be seeing them again. 

 

Also, I met a real life Dory from Finding Nemo. A recent convert name Lynne (who is SUPERB by the way) cares for this old lady named Betty and we were at her giant mansion for dinner on Sunday. So funny. Betty would ask “Oh! Do you girls live in Bracknell? I used to live down there!” Literally two minutes later…”Oh! Where do you girls live? Bracknell? I actually used to live down there!” I was trying really hard not to laugh, she asked like 7 times! She is a sweet lady though, but she is exactly like Dory 🙂

 

I read a talk this week from Elder Holland, “Come unto Me” and has  changed my whole outlook on the Gospel, the Atonement and basically my life. 

 

He is talking about the night that Christ suffered in Gethsemane, 

“On that very night, the night of the greatest suffering the world has ever known or ever will know, Christ said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto…Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it bet afraid” John 14:27″

How amazing and unselfish love is that? 

 

Holland goes on,

 

“I am convinced that none of us can appreciate how deeply it wounds the loving heart of the Savior of the world when he finds his people do not feel confident or secure in his hands or trust in his commandments”

 

That is what really touched me. Sometimes I feel like the Savior isn’t there for me, or He doesn’t understand me, but that is not true. That kind of thinking deeply wounds the Savior. If we trust in Him and “Come Unto Him”, he can heal us. He has walked and felt the pains and agonies we face, no matter how big or small. I love that I can share this with people everyday.

 

Anyway, fun fact, Elder Holland and his companion were the first missionaries to serve in Guildford, my last area. He mentions it in one his talks about Christmas 🙂

 

Well I am off to climb a tree. Pics will follow next week. Stay tuned 😛

 

I love you all!

Much love,

Sister Brittain xxx

Feb. 10, 2014

So I have officially moved into a new area: Bracknell. Although its not that far away from Guildford, its a bit different. Its a new city, not so many rich people. Feels a lot like America. I’m loving it so far! And as far as the work goes, their is so much potential here. Me and Sister Pink (My aussie comp!) have a lot planned to kick this place into gear. Lots of miracles are happening  we actually have and found people to teach! So weird!!!

 

We are teaching a guy named Craig…who at first just wanted money from Bishop, but when we told him we can’t do that, he was still interesting in meeting with us. He actually asked how to become an Elder and if he can still be baptised even if was baptised once…He showed up to church twice already! Hopefully he goes places.

 

Anyway, so watch out, success is coming your way! 

 

I learned something really amazing this week. As we were studying in our Book of Mormon class, we read 1 Nephi 11. In this chapter, Nephi has a vision of the Lord and his ministry. In the vision, the Spirit of the Lord asks, “What desirest thou?” We began discussing what type of questions would WE ask the Lord if  He asked us what we desired. Would we ask why the sky is blue? Would we ask him to cure the diseases of the world? Would we want to know who wins the next American Idol? 

Ezra Taft Benson gave a talk once about this very question. And he has us turn to Acts 9:6, and there we learn the greatest question we can ask.  When Saul realized that the Savior is visiting him, as trembles with fear, He asks the Lord, “What wilt thou have me do?”

 

There is always more we can do to help the Lord. It’s not always talking about missionary work. This can be within our families, our callings, our school or work. We must prepare ourselves so that we can be brave enough to ask the Lord “What can do for YOU?” Jesus Christ has done so much for us, we must be willing to sacrifice for Him.

 

Well I love you all so much. I have officially been out 6 months, with only a year left. Time is going by fast, and I’m learning so much its hard to keep up!

Lots of Love,

Sister Brittain xoxoxo

Jan. 27, 2014

Good day everyone!

I want to address the fact that it snowed in TEXAS?!??! One, this makes me jealous that it snows after I leave, and two, I want to point out that I’m pretty sure the weather is nicer here in England, where it is supposed to be notorious for bad, wet, winters. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all fun and sunshine here! Lots of overcast, but still no snow. 

 

So this week, I’m sorry to say was very boring. Nothing exciting really happened. We aren’t really teaching anybody, and we didn’t find anyone to teach either. Lara is doing as good as you can do when you are losing custody of your kids. Her son will be leaving for America this week, so it’s been really hard for her. She probably won’t see them for a few years. I can’t even imagine. 

 

Well, the weirdest thing to happen this week was that for once we had people coming up to us! That never happens. Downside, is most of them were really creepy men. One guy was Carlos. We were waiting at the bus stop and he was sitting there with 3 suitcases. Lemme describe his attire: White trousers rolled up, a tank top with a denim vest, a fuzzy white scarf around his neck, and a long hair and glasses that make his eyes look tiny. He came up to us and was talking really fast. “Oh sisters! Yes, sisters. I am from Portugal!” He was actually quite a nice guy. We learned he was baptised in 1993 but doesn’t like the church in England. He kept telling us his suitcases had lots of cool music like Leann Rimes and Willie Nelson. He said he would calls us but he was headed to Germany…soooo we aren’t sure what happened to Carlos. 

 

Here is a quote that I got from out Zone Leaders from a recent training. I really like it. It’s from Elder Bednar

 

 

“We will not attain a state of perfection in this life, but we can and should press forward with faith in Christ along the strait and narrow path and make steady progress toward our eternal destiny. The Lord’s pattern for spiritual development is “line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little” (2 Nephi 28:30). Small, steady, incremental spiritual improvements are the steps the Lord would have us take. Preparing to walk guiltless before God is one of the primary purposes of mortality and the pursuit of a lifetime; it does not result from sporadic spurts of intense spiritual activity.” 

 

A mission is hard work, but we will never be perfect in this life. It’s all about trials and overcoming them. I will be honest, it has been a rough, and hard past 3 months, but I am learning and growing as a person. Heavenly Father puts trials in front of you, because he knows YOU can handle them. Small improvements. He doesn’t expect perfection instantly!

 

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love Sister Brittain xxx

Jan. 20, 2014

What a week! I am doing pretty good here in Guildford, enjoying my last few weeks because I know transfers are coming soon and I will probably be leaving this area. Sad day. But this week was interesting to say the least.

 

Tuesday we did service for a friend of a member. Her name is Diane and she came to bonfire back in November so I remembered who she was. We pulled weeds for 4 hours. I was so sore and dirty afterward. But it was relaxing in a way too. She invited for us dinner as a payment 🙂

 

So we taught Dan, the guy we met knocking last week. We brought a member with us, Naomi and the lesson was going fine. He was listening, taking everything in. But then it got weird. After we were done he was like, “Does anyone here have knee problems?” Sister West reluctantly said yes. He said “Is it your right knee? My right knee started tingling and that is God telling me that you need healing” Oddly enough, it was her right knee. He asked to bless her knee and she said sure…He put his hand on her knee and started praying. It was so scary, He was whispering in tongues! And giggling and smiling. I thought this guy was normal…WRONG. He was nice a guy and I think we are teaching him again this week. We will see how that goes. 

 

Miracle of the week is that Mandy is sober!!! Shocking right? She is in her new flat, which is really sad actually. The people that moved her just through everything into this tiny flat. She couldn’t even take a bath because the tub was full of stuff. There is no walking room in her flat. But she is doing so much better. She called us and we could actually have a conversation with her. She is a real person when she isn’t drunk. She actually read some of the Book of Mormon too! The Lord is really working in her life. I’m exciting to see what happens with her 🙂

 

 

Missionary work is so difficult sometimes. Sometimes I question, “Heavenly Father, why do you give us miracles that just turn into to dead ends?” Because I see that happen all time. We pray to find a family, we  find a family that same day, and the next thing you know they are texting saying they aren’t interested. It can be discouraging, and sometimes I find myself getting angry with God and doubting Him. But I have to remember my purpose, I am here to invite other to come unto Christ. Not force them to accept the Gospel. This is His work, and only His. I know that from every miracle, and discouraging time, there is a lesson to learn from it. They say the most important person you convert on your mission, is yourself. In this hard times, Heavenly Father is being my teacher. Helping to becoming a better person so that I can help him find his lost children.

 

I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week! 

Lots of love

Sister Brittain xx

Jan. 13, 2014

The week went kind of slow and fast all at the same time. But I guess that is mission life for you. 

So after our fiasco of moving out Mandy, another incident happened. Last Monday we knocked her door to check to see if she was ok, because she was supposed to leave on Tuesday. When she opened the door she had her shoes one and a vest, as if she was going to leave her flat. She was still really drunk of course so there was no way she could make it out, alive atleast. When debated with her for about ten minutes. She said her doctor said that if doesn’t get more alcohol that she will have hallucinations and seizures (we believed her because we heard Roy speak to the doctor on the phone) So we reluctantly said we would walk with her, because she would get hit by a car and there was no convincing her to stay. We got our coats and started walking. Note, its night time and the store is about a mile away. It took forever! She would hold on Sister West and I was holding her bag. We got to Sainsburys and she started pulling out her card and telling us her pin. We realized she wanted US to buy the vodka. We said “woah woah, the deal was that we would just walk you, we can’t buy it for you” She said there was another store ahead that she could try, so we walked even further. We finally got there and she went in and got her stuff as we waited outside. I felt so uncomfortable because I know it looked like we were just two young girls waiting for this crazy woman to buy us booze. But after seeing the traffic, there was no way she would survive walking by herself. She offered to buy us fish n chips as payment. As we were in the shop of course a police officer walks in. I am panicking inside just reading the headlines “Two Mormon missionaries arrested for assisting public intoxication” But he just laughed and said he was on dinner hour. 

We walked her back and two days later a moving van was there, packing everything away. So Mandy is no longer in our flats and we can finally smell again.

 

Tuesday Sister Anena, from Uganda, came to Guildford for an exchange. So that was cool. She is…interesting..haha. 

 

I went to the temple on Thursday (special permission) and I had a wonderful experience. The London Temple is sooo beautiful! 

 

Zone Training on Friday, good as always. Very long. I was exhausted.

 

 We had a miracle of 1 new investigator this week! We have been doing a lot of finding and having no luck. Sister West felt inspired to go to this street next to the park we live in. So before we left our flat we prayed that we could just be given one miracle, something to boos our faith. And we knocked on the fourth house down, and a guy answered. He was so open and willing to meet with us! It was so great. Afterwards we were so happy we had tears in our eyes, we just said a prayer of thanks as soon as we were done talking.

 

I love this time as a missionary. It can be so hard but I am learning so much. I love the Gospel. There is nothing that can bring such tender happiness. I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all. Its already been 5 months! were is the time going?!

LOTS OF LOVE

Sister Brittain xxxx

Jan. 6, 2014

What a week! I don’t have much time so I want to really explain a crazy/eye opening experience I had this week. 

 

Yesterday as we were entering our flat complex after church, Roy, our upstairs neighbor saw us and said “Are you the Mormons?”….”Yes we are, can we help?”…”Well yes, Mandy needs to move by Tuesday and she is not well enough to pack anything, can you pack her clothes?” So, we ran upstairs and changed into sweats, Sister West was really sick and was running on two hours of sleep, but we thought we would only be packing up clothes and then we would be done. Were we wrong or what.. Mandy was incredibly drunk, and she was only wearing a robe. So yes, I saw this woman naked. Her house was a mess and the smell of vomit was so strong. There were sick stains all over her carpet, I am telling you her carpets were saturated with throw up. As we started packing away clothes, she was sitting on the bed trying to take anti-sick pills, when suddenly she said “I think I am going to be sick…” She projectile vomited as we were only a few feet from her. Sister West and I ran out quickly to get some fresh air… I said I quick prayer asking that we could have the energy to get through it to help her pack. So got back inside, put on some gloves, and began to just throw everything away. At one point, I was in the kitchen trying to sort everything out, I got the prompting to see where Sister West because she wasn’t in the kitchen. I found her as she stood next to Mandy…Mandy’s robe was down and Sister West was trying to help her put on a bra…Knowing Sister West was dying inside, I rushed and helped her hook her bra and put on a t shirt. 

We labored for 5 hours, and had to call the Elders to help us. I saw and touched things I never thought I would, ESPECIALLY as a missionary. But I learned a lot from this experience. I learned how to have Christlike love. We must forget ourselves and put ourselves in the place of the Savior. We must love people as He would. He loves everyone and we must try our hardest, no matter who it is, to serve them and to help them when needed. 

 

So that was my crazy experience with Mandy…I wish i could tell you the details of what happened and what I saw, but I will leave that out for you. I love you all! I hope you start this new year off right!

Dec. 30, 2013

Well it’s been a long week! But it was great of course, because of Christmas 🙂 

 

On Christmas Eve we went with the Elders to the Neu’s! They are awesome. Brother Neu is from America so it felt somewhat like home. They have the cutest kids too, they are perfect and wear cute little English sweaters. Anyway, we ate a fajita dinner and then played games and made a chocolate house, full of crazy sweets. It was a lot of fun! And of course, Skyping the family 😀

 

Christmas Day was interesting. There was a giant storm that passed through so nobody had power. Well we had power in Guildford, but everyone that lives in the little villages didn’t. Like the Fotheringham’s, where we were supposed to have Christmas Dinner. So when she picked us up she told us to bundle up because there was no heating at their house. Brother Fotheringham was still able to pull a pretty nice Christmas dinner. We just had fried turkey instead of roast. No roast potatoes 😦 Actually, it was a miracle because Sister West was supposed to Skype at 3 and the power came on ten minutes before! That was pretty cool. I got to watch Tangled while she talked to family. I MISS MOVIES. Once she was done we ended up watching the Muppet Christmas Story. That movie is weird…

 

Boxing Day was spent at my all time favs, the Bairds! We had a nice little lunch and then just talked, played a game called Linkee which is a British trivia game. So me and Sister West failed miserably. but any time there was a question about America, we were on it! It was nice to hang out with a big family. Felt like home. 

 

So the holidays were good here! The ward showered us with gifts, it was really touching. They a lot of thought into things they got us and were so kind to us. I’m so thankful! 

 

On Saturday, I wasn’t feeling to good so we were in the flat. We heard a really faint knocking sound (side note: we realized that she was the source of the really scary knocking sound we heard in the middle of the night a few days before) and I looked through the peep hole and it was Mandy… We opened the door and she was really drunk and just started crying, she said “I feel so low..I didn’t know who to turn to but you girls” So we stood at our doorstep for 10 minutes as she talked about how she is so sad she has to move and how her family hates her. The whole time her eyes were rolling and she would fade in and out. We eventually helped her back to her flat and sat with her there. It was impossible to talk to her. She kept saying “Michael my neighbor really fancies you…well he fancies both of you…actually I quite fancy him” she said that like 8 times the whole time we spoke to her, and we had only met Michael once for like 2 minutes. So yeah, we finally told her she was to drunk to talk to us and we left. 

 

Oh hey, I would love updates on Jordan and Mason if someone would be kind of enough to send them to me!

 

Well I just gotta say missions are hard. Hard but rewarding. Its almost been 5 months, time is going by so fast. I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas! The weather is awful and I have some type of flu. So i get to stay in a snuggle, watching a little of Nora’s Christmas 🙂

 

I wish you all the best!

Sister Brittain xx

Dec. 23, 2013

Hello again! Well it really is Christmas time now. Tomorrow is Xmas Eve! Say what? But I shall recap this week!

 

So my birthday, was fabulous. The whole district, along with the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders came together at the chapel and we are a birthday party 🙂 This included an egg toss, charades, pass the parcel, musical chairs and many more.  All planned by Elder Schumann, the German who really does have a heart. It was fun! Then we went to the Jackson family, where we had a nice dinner. Debbie and Amy were there, we finally asked if they would be interested in our message. Amy said yes! But Debbie wasn’t kinda unsure about it so we will see. I love Amy and it would be so great to teach her!

 

Tuesday we got to go the Temple! How cool is it that I can say that I’ve been to BOTH temples in England? Pretty cool! We also had a nice dinner with part of the mission. 

 

One day this week we went finding in a village called Jacobswell. It was a 30 minute walk. No one was home and those that were could hardly hear what we were saying. Frustrating! But what can ya do? The bishop counseled us to go to Jacobswell and we did. So we were there for some reason!

 

So Darrel..met with him an Mcdonalds again. We kind of dropped him, we think he just visits with us for social part of it. Not that we are like super talkative and fun with him… But yeah, he flogged on church twice and just isn’t taking it seriously. We will see how he is in a few weeks.

 

Mandy…ooooh Mandy. She’s NUTS. And has lots of issues. We saw her as we were leaving the flat and she sounded like she was doing a lot better until she asked us if heard the big fight from our upstairs neighbors the night before. We were like “Uhh…we didn’t hear anything?” She went on about how this big black man came into house and was in her loo, taking a wee. What?! haha I think she was dreaming/hallucinating… Poor woman, she has a lot of problems in life right now Just not sure how we can help her. 

 

We taught Milford on Saturday. We met him at this place called the Spectrum and it was like being in America…sort of. There was an ice skating rink and bowling and get this a small water park! I saw people in their bathing suits…in England..in the winter! Never though I’d see the day.

 

Me and Sister West gave a talk in Relief Society. It went good expect that it was cut very short so that the primary could have their nativity. SO CUTE. 

 

Oh yeah, Sister West got sick so we made a fort, meaning made a big bed on the floor with our mattresses, watched Nora’s Christmas for like bagillionth time and ate soup and garlic bread. We may or may not have slept on the “fort” for another 2 nights…

 

Well I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. The work is Guildford is slow, but I love the Gospel so much and I know things will pick up soon. I’m so happy to be on a mission.  I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Love,

Sister Brittain xx