Family!! :)

  Soooooo, I am back in Hialeah!! Not technically the same place where I started but I am in the same zone which is cool and my area covers some of Hialeah. I feel like I am home. :)) I am in Palm Springs North, outside of Miami. I had been praying for forever to come back to this zone :) I am in an English ward. First area for me that is English but there is lots and lots of Latin’s everywhere!! It’s so hard to find people to teach. Sister King is my new companion and I love her sooo much!!!!!!! She reminds me so much of Lauryn! She has been out for 5 months. She is seriously amazing and we became best friends right away. She is an English missionary so it’s so weird being the only one who can speak Spanish because i have had a lot of comps who were fluent and I would just rely on them and now I have to rely on the Spirit! The gift of tongues is so real! I can testify to that! It’s been fun though. I have been teaching her Spanish so she can be included and know what’s sort of going on. She is just the best.  This transfer is going to be the best one yet!!

Thanks so much Dad for the snippets from the talk about prophets! Super good! Its crazy how much more sustaining is, than just lifting a hand, it means we obey Him, we talk good about Him, and we support Him, all this stuff!! Thank you so much for sharing that. It will help me in my preparation for conference, which i am so excited for!! Cannot wait to receive revelation and hear all the messages. It’s like Christmas here.

I have been putting off telling you guys this for a while, but it’s getting pretty bad. I have been having super bad lower back pain. At first i thought it just needed to be cracked or rolled out but that didn't help. It hurts every day. When I am moving its okay but it’s the worst when I am not moving, like when I sit for a long period of time or at night when I sleep, I can’t sleep on my back and I am super stiff when I wake up. I can’t bend down to put my shoes on or to dry my hair, and when I have to bend down it takes me forever to get back up and I have random muscle spasms. I don't know what to do. I don't want to go to the doctor. I haven't told the nurse because she is crazy and I don't want to go home early because someone just got sent home early for back pain so I am scared. Help!!

 We have seen so many miracles this week!! On transfer day we went to go see these families that Sister King and her last comp had found. The first one was Emma and her son hector and Genoese. They are amazing! We sat down and taught them the plan of salvation and they loved it! They said it was the cherry on top! It was such a great spiritual lesson with the whole family and are expected to be baptized on the 12 of April. They didn't come to church but we will be seeing them this week. We were so happy because Sister King said they hadn't had new investigators in a long time. The other family we taught that night was Ethel and Hailey. A mother and daughter. We also taught them the plan of salvation and they want to go to the temple super bad!! They want to be sealed as a family. They are so excited for baptism on the 12 as well!! Super big transfer miracles!! The rest of this week has just been knocking and knocking like crazy!!! And making sure we are including the Lord in everything! A goal I have this week is to help Sister King achieve her goals of being bold! That’s something I worked on last transfer so I am excited to help her with it!!

 So this week in my personal study I was reading in Alma in chapters 50-53 where it talks all about wars and it gets kind of annoying after a while because you just want something good to happen. haha But while reading it this time I asked myself what can I get out of this, and its chapter 51. Where its talks about how Moroni was stationing people all around In different cities to hold off the Laminates and how each city and each person had a special spot and job to do. While reading this it made me think of a quote from Jeffery R Holland that says "This is an invitation to each of us to take our place on the wall and to call out encouragement to one another. I have my station and you have yours. Each of us has our own. None of us will stand in the place of any other, but like Gideon’s valiant band we can each stand in our own place. We can stand together in a fight against the prince of darkness and the dangers of spiritual decay." 

We each have our own spot in this battle against Satan. We each have our own job and no one else can do that job better than we can. We need to encourage others around us to uplift them and help them. Just like Moroni was doing with his soldiers.

I have been reading the talk The Enabling Power of the Atonement. It is a super good talk. Before my mission I just thought the atonement was there to cleanse me of my sins but here on my mission I have learned that it’s so much more than that. There are two parts. The redeeming power which will cleanse us of our sins and the enabling power which helps make our weaknesses our strengths. The enabling power doesn't make up what we can’t do, it gives us the strength to keep going to keep trying to endure to the end, to make us stronger. With the enabling power there is grace. Grace doesn't kick in at a certain, time it’s always with us. We just have to do all we can do. I have learned that grace is an action word. Like the scripture, faith without works is dead, grace without works is dead. Once we have done all we can possibly do that's when grace is applied and the atonement carries us. Elder Holland said "This may be the one of the Savior’s commandments that is even in the hearts of otherwise faithful latter day saints almost universally disobeyed and yet I wonder whether our resistance to this invitation could be any more grievous to the Lord’s merciful heart. 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 in his care or secure in his hand."

It’s okay to use the atonement because it means we are becoming more like God. I know I cannot change my situation sometimes but I can change how I respond. We just have to humble ourselves. When we understand the enabling power of the atonement we will be changed. We will have that strength beyond our own natural abilities. In the strength of the Lord we can do all things.

This week has been amazing and I am excited to find more people to teach. Emma and her family and Ethel are just the best and I know that we will continue to find more elect people as well. Our ward is good as well. I guess the missionaries right before Sister King where bad and scared the ward so they don't trust us and don't like us but it’s getting better slowly. We have a lot of work to do with the ward as well with our bishop. He is all about numbers and doesn't show us much love but he has good intentions. He is a great guy just needs to be softened. hahah So excited to help this ward!! :)

   I love you all soo much!! I hope you have a great week!!! Thanks for all you do!! :))) miss you all!! :) xoxoxoxoxo

Briaunna

We received an email from a Brother and Sister Brown from Briaunna's new area. They had her and Sister King over for dinner and took their pictures and sent them to us! What a great place to have dinner, on the water! Thank you so much Brown family!

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