missionary plaque picture

missionary plaque picture

Monday, December 29, 2014

Recovering from Post-Christmas Chocolate-Shock

Hey Family!!
Well we have had a crazy Pday-- the family history center was down so we spent the whole morning running around trying to find somewhere to email. We have finally found a place, but that means we're pretty pressed for time today. Rather than sending a big long email, I will send a big huge ton of pictures! :)
Well it was so wonderful being able to Skype with you on Christmas! Even if the screen was a little postage stamp. It was nice to see your faces and hear your voices. :) It doesn't even feel like it's been 6 months since we talked last! After we got off Skype we made a bunch of gingerbread cookies to take to investigators and less actives and spent the day delivering them and teaching where we could. :) We had an awesome impromptu lesson with a couple named Cathi and Mike-- Mike was having a hard day because his mom passed away two months ago. Christmas is always the hardest when you're missing someone. So we taught them about the plan of salvation and baptisms for the dead and they both cried. Pretty cool! They really want to come to church but each week they commit and say "this is the week" and then something gets in the way. Darn Satan.



Mom, thank you so much for taking the time to put together such nice packages and send them. I got all of the gifts you sent. You'll notice Carlos sporting his new CTR ring in one of his baptism picture :) Those were seriously the most useful gifts you could have sent. It was like you were really listening to the Spirit!! Those sweater tights are saving my life!
Sister Hame and I are really torn between eating all the chocolate we see and giving it all away. We hope you don't mind if we gave a lot of it to our investigators and others who need it more than we do... a LOT more than we do. :P People have sure been spoiling us out here!
In other news, part of my camera just broke off. Don't drop your camera, folks!  
Dad, great job on the earrings!! Those are beautiful! And I'm excited about those Italy pictures! I'm glad you got to do something fun for your anniversary. I wondered with all the craziness if you would be able to do something nice but it sounds like it was a great anniversary.
Carlos's baptism was absolutely wonderful. Lots of support from the ward, all the missionaries that taught him, and his family. It was perfectly timed, because his two older sons who live in New York were visiting for the holidays. He basically only sees them once a year. His mom, a niece, and a nephew, and his two little kids Emma and Santi also came. They all clapped after he was baptized... which was kind of adorable. They were just so excited for him. I won't lie, I was tempted to join in ;) Brother Walker, our spider-killing, toilet-paper-lending, awesome-advice-giving, fantastic-fellowshipping neighbor baptized him. He and Carlos both cried. :) We're all just really excited to see Carlos's future. He's not married right now but we don't think it'll take him long to find a wonderful wife, get sealed to his kids in the temple, and become the next bishop. He's just taken the first step of many on a path full of blessings and discipleship. He is awesome!! I can't believe he's a member now!


Have a wonderful week! Sorry this was so rushed. I love you all!
Ever onward--
Love, Sister Browning

Monday, December 22, 2014

All I Want for Christmas is My Voice Back

"All I want for Christmas is my voice back"
"All I want for Christmas is dessert at dinner... but no dessert at dinner" 
"All I want for Christmas is our new investigators to show up to their return appointment" 
"All I want for Christmas is 2,000 baptisms" 
"All I want for Christmas is permission to watch White Christmas" 
"All I want for Christmas is our upstairs neighbors to walk like ballerinas rather than elephants" 
"All I want for Christmas is for members to give us chocolate... but to stop giving us chocolate" 
"All I want for Christmas is to wear pants outside" 
"All I want for Christmas is to stop calling Kim and Terry Tim and Kerry"
"All I want for Christmas is a letter in the mail every.single.day" 
"All I want for Christmas is to be one of the cute sister missionaries... but not too cute" 
"All I want for Christmas is to not have to shave my legs" 
"All I want for Christmas is to not have a double chin when I Skype my family" 

--- It started with the first one and escalated from there. All the funniest ones are Sister Hame. She lives up to her name. Ba dum pshhhhh :) 
MERRY ALMOST CHRISTMAS, FAMILY!! 

Ahh it's so close! Yay! First things first, I am so excited to Skype with you. I'm skying from the home of these super awesome members, the Chattertons-- they're a young couple, no kids, they both served missions so they're dynamite. We were thinking maybe noon would be good? How does that sound? We can make a 5 min phone call on Christmas Eve to set everything up. So be expecting a phone call sometime. Probably in the evening? Does that sound alright? 

What are your plans for Christmas?? Just gonna be home? Browning get-together in the evening? Are you having BETHLEHEM DINNER?? I hope so, cause I tell everyone who asks what my christmas traditions are about that one and the straw in the manger tradition. Those are my two favorites. :) 

Please tell Carly Holmes that I said congratulations on her graduation, that's awesome!! And so fun that you got to see the Holmes family! Those are people I love dearly. It's absolutely crazy to hear about all these Rigby kids going on missions... Rigby knows how to hasten the work! Way to go, Idaho. That makes me so happy! They're making such great decisions. Please tell them I said so. :) 

I'm super proud of Dad for wearing both the bishop hat and the stake president hat at the same time. One hat is heavy enough. I bet that was stressful and difficult but Dad is amazing and he can do anything :) One of my favorite quotes from the mission so far: "You can do this, but you can't do this without Heavenly Father's help." That was Bradley D. Foster's wife at our mission conference last transfer. 

This week was super awesome. We found a TON of new people to teach. We're teaching Joseph, a guy from Ghana with a super cool accent, a woman named Ingrid from Germany, and many others, even a couple YSAs! Both Sister Hame and I have served in YSA wards (Sis Hame served in the Smedley's ward!) so we have a deep and abiding love for YSAs. We want to find all the YSAs in Kingman so we can start a singles ward. :) Carlos came to church again so he's getting baptized next Sunday evening and we can hardly wait!! We felt prompted to promise Nicole and Brittney, the bishop's granddaughters, that if they fasted and prayed and then asked their dad for permission to be baptized on January 17th, he would say yes. So on Sunday we all fasted together. I'll keep you updated on what happens! 

We've also started teaching the woman we met last week, Leah, who lives next to her burned-out trailer. She is so open to learning but it might be a long process with her because she just has so many temporal needs right now. Even if all we do is serve her and plant a seed right now, it'll be worth it. I feel confident that she'll get baptized someday. 

Well I'm out of time to write any more than this but I'll fill you in on the rest when we SKYPE! :) Can't wait! Love ya, and have a very Merry Christmas remembering the birth of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. 

Love Always, Sister Browning 

Monday, December 15, 2014

A New Awesome Transfer

Dear Family, 

Wait what? 

I'm feeling all of your and my collective surprise over here in Kingman AZ. Dad is the new stake president!  I read the beginning of Mom's email and started to cry, how embarrassing. But as I processed it the Spirit witnessed to me that they chose the right person. You've got my 100% support, Dad. Sister Abernathy, another sister in my zone who is emailing next to me right now is a stake president's daughter and she just shared with me the blessings she's seen in her family because of her dad's service. It sounds like Elder Hamula has promised those same blessings and I know they'll be fulfilled. 

Dad, I loved how you said "I tried everything I could to show the Lord and His servants that I was not the man they should choose." I laughed, but then I realized that that must be exactly why Heavenly Father knows He can trust you. He knows that you'll serve humbly if you're called but you'll rely on Him to give you the strength you need. You have gifts and abilities that this stake needs at this time. And I'm sure excited that you get to be the one to release me at the end of my mission. :) Hooray! 

This past week has just been a whirlwind and I feel like I can hardly keep up. We are working so hard and seeing so many little miracles and tender mercies each day. My journal writing has gone to pot simply because we have zero time, and I feel so bad for my posterity because if I don't write down some of these experiences, they will be missing out. My emails may have to play double for my journal until I can figure out how to balance my time.  

My new companion, Sis Fotheringhame, is NOT from England-- She's from Missour-ah :) She goes by Sister Hame (Ham) for short because no one can read the tiny print on her name tag at first glance. She is one of the funniest, most wonderful people I have ever met. I am on cloud nine being her companion! I've never laughed so hard or so often on my mission as I have this past week with her. We have the exact same kind of witty, silly, prone-to-exaggeration sense of humor. Even this morning, when we got up to go running at 6:15, I was laughing. I LOVE SISTER HAME. She's my girl. 

We set some really high goals for the coming week and we're going to give it our all to reach them. It's such a blessing to have a companion who wants to work hard, be exactly obedient, love the people, and stretch herself. She makes me a better missionary and I can completely be myself around her. I feel so blessed!! 

Oh, and on the first evening of the transfer, we saw a shooting star. If that doesn't tell you this is going to be a celestial 6 weeks, I don't know what would! :) 

I can't remember all the things I wanted to talk about from this week... Hmm... Oh! Our ward mission leader in Boulder Springs ward, Carson, was home from his mission on medical release but finally got cleared to go back. So he's on a plane back to Madagascar right now. That's a HUGE miracle for him! So we're really excited! Hopefully they call a new ward mission leader soon. We've finally started to find investigators in Boulder Springs ward. A ton of prepared people just popped up out of the woodwork this week. So many times Sister Hame will turn to each other and go... "Did that just happen?" Heavenly Father is truly answering our prayers. I will give you an update next week on which ones are progressing :) 

I spoke in sacrament meeting in White Cliffs ward along with two moms of missionaries. I gave the moms each a hug and told them it was like hearing my own mom speak... They got a little teary :) I spoke on sharing the gift of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and just shared stories and scriptures from my mission about the blessings I've seen from sharing the gifts we have-- focusing on the gift of the Book of Mormon, the gift of eternal families, and the gift of full access to the Atonement of Christ. I sat down and then thought of all the things I wished I'd said, but it must not have been important, because the Spirit would have prompted me to say them if they were. So hopefully it went ok and the members will go out and re-gift the Gospel this Christmas :) That was the goal! 

Ignacio and Silvia have decided they're not super interested in changing right now. But we are going to keep trying to be friends and see if they change their minds in the future :) Carlos is still doing great and actually has a friend who we are hoping to start teaching this week. You were right Dad, he is a great source of referrals! 

Mom/Dad, I have a question! Do you ever go out and teach with the missionaries?? I can promise it would make the missionaries' day if you went up to them and said "When can I come to a lesson with you?" The only thing that is more music to a missionary's ears is the phrase "I have some friends I want you to meet." Especially now with your new calling, you have an incredible amount of demands on your time, but if you can find some time, you would really bring a spirit and power to those lessons that the missionaries and investigators will benefit from hugely. :) 

To answer your questions Mom: What do I want for Christmas? Hmm... Garments? Half of the bottoms have turned blueish... I think it's dye from my skirts or something... Too personal? :P The only other thing I can think of is gifts I can give to my investigators. Like CTR rings or something. Besides that, I don't have any requests. :) Thank you for sending that tree!! Our little apartment is just a little more festive now :) and I totally remember helping to make those ornaments to send to Jeren when he was a missionary. Ever since I decided to serve a mission I secretly hoped that I would have that tree and ornaments in my missionary apartment someday. So that was a delightful surprise :)

You also asked about the geometric sweater, that is actually mine :) Found it for $5 on a Pday! I've also picked up a couple new-to-me things in the past 6 months-- a watch that Sister Smith didn't want, a couple skirts that Sister Martin didn't want, and some old things that past sister missionaries have left behind in the Room of Requirement (aka empty spare bedroom) here in Kingman. So if I send pictures home and you think "I don't remember buying that..." that is the source of my new wardrobe :) 

Funny story of the week: at 9:45 PM on Saturday night we found this gigantor nasty hairy spider crawling on the wall under Sister Hame's desk. No, we didn't take a picture. We're both wimps. :) So we called our member neighbor and he and his wife came and killed it for us. What an angel. We spent the next half hour spraying the whole place with Raid, and fell asleep to the smell of chemical. No spiders today!! ;) 

Christmas is coming!! I'm so excited to talk to you!! We have a member's house to Skype at, but we're not sure what time. Are we in the same time zone? Arizona doesn't have daylight savings so I'm not sure if we're in line with mountain or pacific right now.. We were thinking around 12:00 our time. But let me know what you'd like to do and we'll coordinate. :) Also, I have no idea how much time we're allowed. TBA on that one. :) 

I have to tell you one more story, and I'll try to do it justice and put it into words, but I'm not sure that I adequately can. This experience really made a deeper-than-words impact on me. Here is my attempt to share it.

 There is one section of town here in Kingman that has a lot, lot, lot of poverty in it. If you cross under the railroad tracks on the south side of the town, you'll find a group that lives very humbly-- small, old, run-down homes, trailer parks, little alleys and streets that don't even have names. Lots of stray cats and sad-looking residents. The other day, a man we talked to on the street said he wasn't interested but pointed us in the direction of his friend Leah. We drove over and discovered a little shack-like house next to a  burned-down trailer home. We knocked on the front door of the house and there was no answer. We went back to our car and turned it on, but right before we drove away, Sister Hame said "Wait. I see smoke!" I couldn't see it, but she insisted there was a campfire going being the house, and I trusted her. So we got back out of the car and walked through the gate around the side of the burned-out trailer to the back "door" of her house. There was nothing to knock on... so we called "Hello? It's the missionaries!" And a woman came out. 

We're not sure how old she is-- She's probably in her forties, but her life has aged her. She told us how her trailer home caught on fire a week before thanksgiving and they couldn't save anything. Looking at the mess the fire left was humbling... She's been trying to go through the rubble and salvage things but it's a job that would make anyone feel overwhelmed. We stood there talking to her about Heavenly Father and His plan for us and the Book of Mormon and just feeling completely overwhelmed. It was pretty cold, I had my hands in my pockets, and I idly thought "My toes are kind of going numb.." And I realized this woman was living with no electricity, no heat and no water and she was so grateful for what she did have. I felt a little nudge from the Spirit to give her my coat.. but I looked down at my mint-colored peacoat and selfishly thought, "Man... I like this coat..." At the same time my selfless, Christlike, wonderful companion took off her jacket and gave it to her. We left there and both cried as it hit us how blessed we've been in our lives and how much need there is in this world. Heavenly Father was telling me very clearly through that experience, "Sister Browning, I sent you here to love my children. Now start doing it." We went back later that night with blankets from a member. There's only so much we can do for her temporally but we can bring her the inner peace and healing that comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful I met Leah. :)   

Love you all thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much :) Have a great week-before-Christmas! 

Love, Sister Browning 

Monday, December 8, 2014

Burned Bread, Bugs, and Pet Pot-bellied Pigs

Well hey family!!

Transfers are upon us again! Sister Martin is leaving and I'm staying here with a sister by the name of Fotheringhame. Maybe she's British? Guess I'll find out tomorrow :) In other transfer news, Sister Luke is going to be the new Mission STL (or sister AP). I am not even the slightest bit surprised! She's one of the most loving, life-changing leaders this mission has ever had :)

We worked so incredibly hard this week-- really sprinted to the end of the transfer. Xonya cancelled her baptism and we've had to stop teaching her because she's not ready yet. It broke our hearts. But she still knows it's true, and she'll be back! Meanwhile, we've started teaching her next door neighbor, a sweet teenage girl named Abby whose grandma is a less active member. She's gaining a very sweet, pure testimony of the gospel. :)

Working with two wards this transfer has been an interesting challenge. It's a little like juggling! :) 2  bishoprics, 2 ward councils, 2 sacrament meetings, 2 sets of investigators, 2 sets of members, 2 dinner calendars, 2 ward mission leaders. Double the fun!! I've finally got the hang of who is who and where everything is, so I'll feel a lot more confident in this coming transfer :)

One of our wards, White Cliffs, is doing really well... and the other is really struggling. We had to drop several of our investigators in Boulder Springs and our teaching pool has dwindled away to almost nothing. We have been fasting and praying for Boulder Springs, setting goals and plans and street contacting and inspired knocking and working with members and asking for referrals like our lives depend on it. I'm learning so much from having this ward where we have to throw ourselves into finding and work from the ground up. I'm excited to see what ideas Sis Fotheringhame has to get things going for Boulder Springs.

You remember Carlos, our golden investigator [White Cliffs] who's not been able to come to church for 2 months? Well, we had a miracle this week. His boss has given him all Sundays off for at least the next 6 weeks, and then at least every other week after that. There have been a lot of prayers for him, and Heavenly Father's heard them all :) He and his two adorable kids came to church yesterday and sat in the front, and he jumped bravely up to the pulpit and in his Brooklyn NY accent bore a powerful testimony of the gospel. He is set for baptism on December 27th-- we're so excited for him!! This year, he gets the gift of the Holy Ghost for Christmas. :) And White Cliffs gets a new, strong priesthood holder who I feel certain will be a leader someday.

We have 2 new investigators named Ignacio and Silvia! They came to the Christmas broadcast last night, and Ignacio has great questions about the prophet and Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon... according to Sister Martin. Here's the problem: I don't speak Spanish! I sat there like a vegetable in our first lesson, kicking myself for not taking that Spanish class I intended to at BYU. They don't have Spanish wards out here in the valley, so it's Sister F and my responsibility now to make sure that Ignacio and Silvia are taught the gospel! Sis Martin is so sad that she's leaving just as we gain Spanish investigators... and trust me... I am too. :P But thankfully there are lots of members here that are Spanish-speaking return missionaries and hopefully they can help us.

Couple funny stories for you. Funny story #1: We were street contacting this nicer neighborhood and met an old lady who pointed us in the direction of her daughter's house down the street. Just as we're walking up to the house the garage door opens and 2 big friendly dogs come bounding out, followed by this put-together, classy-looking, nurse practitioner lady. While we were standing there answering her questions, thisHUGE PIG appears in the doorway into the house and walks into the garage. I'm talking HUGE. Just emerges like a kraken from the deep. Its stomach was so big it was dragging on the floor and its eyes were sunk into its massive head... the woman, Mary Lee, goes "oh, that's my pet pot-bellied pig!" The pig lives in her house. I was so surprised I started laughing. During the course of our conversation with Mary Lee the pig got jealous and knocked over a card table with its face, and also peed in the corner of the garage. We have a return appointment, so we will probably see the pig again.

Funny thing #2: I finally have a funny dinner appointment story. There's a woman named Victoria who has come to church for years but is pretty hostile, typically, to missionaries. The woman who coordinates our dinners called her, on accident, and Victoria said, "well sure I'll feed em!" We show up, a little nervous, and find that her entire house is full of smoke. Apparently she burned the garlic bread. Reeeallly bad. So we got all the windows and doors open and left them that way the whole time.. The smoke finally cleared about 40 minutes later. Meanwhile, we're nibbling around the inch-thick char on the garlic bread and hearing stories about Victoria's life and the Native American heritage she claims. "The thing about me," she says, "is that I have a southern accent." Apparently she picked it up after 2 years in Texas and just can't get rid of it. She didn't have any accent before the story, and after the story she spoke with the thickest southern drawl I've ever heard. I was just like wait... what? So we finish eating and we've both had seconds at her command and I go back into the kitchen to clear the dishes and notice lots of little bugs scatter across the counter as I set down the plates. *freeze* *process* *gag* Poor Sis Martin was pretty sick the next day. But we're still laughing about it!

Picture 1 is us with one of our favorite families, the Pease's, when we stopped by so Sis Martin could say goodbye. They are the champions. The most missionary-minded family ever! :)
Picture 2 is from Lita's baptism. It's been such a privilege teaching Lita and helping her family to return to activity in the church. She has not had an easy life and being blind has special challenges that I've never faced. Bishop told us that he's never felt the spirit so strongly in an interview with a child of record. In his welcome to the ward talk, he said, "It's not often that I find myself crying in a meeting with a small child. I knew Heavenly Father was sitting next to her, saying, 'This is my child, and I love her, and I want her to be baptized.' " She really has one of the strongest spirits I've ever felt!

This week I'll hit my 6 month mark on the mission. I didn't believe them when they said it goes by fast, but now I do :) I have one year left to learn everything I was sent here to learn and make the impact Heavenly Father intends for me to make. Time to hit it hard and give it everything I've got! :) Love you all so much!
Love, Sister B

Monday, December 1, 2014

I Blinked, and November was Over!

Dearly Beloved Family!! 

Well you are all incredible. Thank you for praying that I wouldn't be homesick! Your prayers worked, I was not homesick on thanksgiving, just happy and grateful to be out here and grateful that I have such a great family to miss. If I never left I'd never fully appreciate what I've got! For example: Scrabble and Nertz and Ticket to Ride would have been a little bit more like "Sure..." but now that I fully appreciate thanksgiving with your family I'll be like "YESSSS SCRABBLE NERTZ TICKET TO RIDE!" In the future. Know what I'm saying? ;) 

To quote mom: "It must be awkward spending a traditionally family oriented feast with people you don't know very well, but better than being alone." Haha... well, yup! I'd never talked to them before in my life. But it was nice. :) And Sister Michelson is an amazing cook. After we ate an early dinner with them we drove around delivering little gratitude notes we'd made and little tins of cookies to some of our investigators, less actives, recent converts, bishops. We made a dozen notes and that was exactly as many people as we had time to visit. It was a good day! Sister Martin's first Thanksgiving. So special. :)

Our seminary speaking assignment turned out kind of comical :P Sooo... me being a poor communicator and Sis Martin learning English, she thought that we were joint-teaching a class rather than giving two separate talks... and I didn't realize that's what she thought until she got up in front of the pulpit! She motions me up to stand next to her and I kind of did this awkward... "Me?" So I just went with it xD rather than giving the talk I prepared, I just kind of helped her give hers. I wondered why she was prepared with so many visual aids when we left the apartment. We were finally able to talk about it and get on the same page after the morningside was over, with a mutual "Ohhhh... oops." Pretty funny :) It still went well though. Hopefully it helped some of those kids to make scripture study a priority! 

Our area has a lot of recent convert/less active work to do. It's so sad when those two groups become the same thing! They had some great elders in the White Cliffs ward about a year ago, and after those elders left a lot of their recent converts stopped coming to church. So we are trying to go to the rescue. :) 

One family we're working with, the Rackley's, has a very special place in my heart. We actually started teaching their daughter as an investigator, but then we realized she is 8 years old. (VERY tall and VERY smart for 8 years!) So she's technically a child of record baptism. We're still going over and going through all the lessons with the family, because they're all trying to get active again. I wish you could just sit in on one of those lessons. The Spirit is so strong in their home. We asked Brother Rackley to share how the gift of the Holy Ghost has made a difference in his life and he started to cry. And Sister Rackley started to cry. And Delaney started to cry. And I wanted to cry! Why does the Spirit make people cry so much?? "But it's a good cry," as Bro. Rackley said.  

Xonya is having a really difficult time and needs your prayers. Her dad passed away on Friday and so she wants to push her baptism back a few weeks. We just want to be there for her and help her through it at her pace, but she keeps missing her appointments and church and going MIA for long periods of time. I fasted for her yesterday. It's hard to know how to help this grieving 16 year old girl who's already gone through more in her life than I can imagine... I know it's not us she needs the help from, but her Heavenly Father through us. I am exercising faith that He will help Sis Martin and I know what to do.

I have one request for you all! I told Nelson about this already, because he's kind of the resident jokester, but I need any and all missionary-appropriate, punny, cheesy, gospel-related jokes you can think of. We send them to one of our investigators, Brock, and it's a wonderful way to have daily contact and keep the gospel on his mind. Different tactics for different investigators... Here are two examples: 

How many missionaries does it take to change a lightbulb?
Two, but the lightbulb has to want to change. 

How does Moses make his tea?
Hebrews it! 

--He really liked the last one. But I'm just not that funny and my joke repertoire is basically limited to those two. So if you can think of any jokes like that, please send them my way!!

Dad, we were over at Bishop Tinnel's last night (we are teaching his granddaughters) and he had just gotten home from a long afternoon of tithing settlement. I had told him before how you've been a bishop twice, and last night he said "I just keep thinking about your dad and all the tithing settlements he's done. Give him my deepest respect and sympathy!"

Another transfer is coming to an end this week, and I can hardly believe it! We're going really hit it hard this week and try to find teach baptize reactivate pray plead work sweat and serve! Most likely Sister M will be leaving since she's been here for 6 months and I'll probably be staying, but I'll let you know next week after we get our transfer doctrines. 

I know Thanksgiving is over and we're moving on to Christmas (yaaaaaaaaaay) but one thing I've been focusing on lately is having a grateful heart. Positivity and optimism. Preach My Gospel says "do not become discouraged; discouragement will weaken your faith." So even when I don't see the immediate results of my work-- when people don't enter the waters of baptism, when they don't show up to church, when the auxiliaries don't immediately get on board and I haven't won the hearts of the people or been able to get through to them-- I'm trying to focus on the things that are going well and the lessons I'm learning from the things that aren't. It's easy to focus on the trial of a mission, but that's a trap. So even though thanksgiving is over, I'm working on an attitude of gratitude in my heart!  

It always makes me so happy to hear about how you're doing! Thanks for writing to me and for all your support! It means the world! Love you all!! 

Love, Sister B 

P.S: I found out yesterday that Bro Cornelison in my ward is Taylor Bird's half brother! How cool is that?!