Week 10 Paradise Weekly

Jan. 12, 2015

So... it has been bitterly cold... like... in the single digits... before wind chill.... but no snow. :(
Needless to say, I'm a little cold... lol

*********SIDE NOTE********** 

#1-So we might be moving to another town later this week so hold off on sending mail because we will probably be moving at the end of this week... so fun! I'll give out our new address next week or we will know more details by next week.

#2-Oh and if you want me to mail you an actual letter, email your address and I'll do so.
Megan.Brimley@myldsmail.net

So this week was awesome, as always, but the first few days were rough. There was no one to see... and basically everyone cancelled. Joys of a mission... oh well, we will get them!

THEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thursday happened... BUT before I get to that...

Wednesday night we finally had a meeting with Bishop. Good things happen when the ward and missionaries work together! That was when we found out that we will probably leave.

Thursday we had district meeting... AND I GAVE A TRAINING!... super scary... which is silly because it's not. But the funny thing is the topic that I was given: listening. I have been working on that so when we got the phone call from Elder Dickert (District Leader), Sister Eschenbrenner busted up laughing... so did I hahaha. It was even more scary because the Zone Leaders were there... just more people to be in front of and teach. I think it went well... I hope...

After District Meeting we drove to Centralia and got to work. :) One of our first stops was an elderly sister who can't come to church anymore because of her health/condition. She is normally a little grumpy and hard to carry on a conversation with, but she was SO excited to see us! She has been telling us about her genealogy book (a binder full of the family history that has been done) and she really opened up to us! Then we went to see a new sister in the ward who moved from the Mt. Vernon ward. She is an elderly sister that has had a hard life and has had A LOT of health problems... so she struggles to come to church because it's easier to say that she doesn't feel well. We are working with her to help her see the positive side. :)

I did say we spend most of our time in the car......

Then we drove past a VERY less active sister's house (she is actually J's little sister) and she was HOME! She is NEVER! home, so we stopped and had a very good conversation with her and her mom, even though it was SUPER AWKWARD! Her mom left and her boyfriend and his friend came in. I said a closing prayer and then after we were done her boyfriend's friend started asking a bunch of questions and the boyfriend as well asked a BUNCH of questions. We were there for almost two hours! We offered to teach them lessons and gave them our card. They asked where we could meet and asked if we were afraid of being "in the hood". Sister E and I laughed and said, "No".

After that, we stopped by to see "K" and set up another appointment. We had stopped by her house earlier and she wasn't home, but her brother told us where she was so we tracked her down. She wasn't there either (she was at the store) but her sister was very nice and told us to come back a little later... so we did. "K" was SOOO excited to see us, it was great! :)
 

Then we stopped by the home of another less active/part member and they let us in! They normally do, but everyone has been sick so we haven't been able to make it for a while. We offered to teach the daughter and she was super EXCITED!
 

Thursday was AWESOME! Friday, too, but I don't want to bore you... :)

I have had quite a few ups and downs and I am understanding more and more about the Atonement and God's love for me and all His children! I know that He loves us all, and is REALLY THERE, that He hears us when we pray and wants the best for us. He sent us for a purpose, and that purpose is to learn and grow, to develop faith in Christ, to practice repentance (or turning to God), to be baptized by the priesthood of God, to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and then to live the rest of our lives staying strong and continually learning and growing and coming closer and closer to our Heavenly Father.

I Love you all SOOO MUCH!

Sister Megan Brimley 

Scripture: 

1 Nephi 10:22 and 1 Nephi 17:36 (not really related...)

And.... If you're doing the BoM (Book of Mormon) challenge you should be on page 54 today. :) I promise you that if you take the short time it takes to read 6 pages (it should take about 6-10mins) that Heavenly Father will pour out SO MANY BLESSINGS to you and that the weeks will be easier and happier. :)

Sister E taping the AC unit. No more draft. Brrrrr!!!

 

Week 9 2nd Transfer in Missionary Paradise!

Jan. 5, 2015

Hello ALL! I love and miss you! I hope everyone had a good New Years!

 

Well this week was good... and bad... and awesome :) I have had to learn a whole lot in ways I didn't want to... but I did... and things have gotten so much easier. 

Sister Eschenbrenner and me in the car. We are trying to take more pictures...and we spend most of our time in the car!!

We were super busy this week. We had so many appointments fall through but we were able to do A LOT of service which is good. For sisters it is really hard to get people to let us serve them. I don't know why, but that's how it is everywhere as far as I know. We helped a sister move into our ward, and helped clean, and set up a phone, AND... changed the batteries in a smoke detector... lol.

This week we spent a lot of time with members. We tried to stay for only an hour tops, but they needed more time than that which was frustrating but it was a good use of our time. We would have liked to spend that time with investigators but Heavenly Father knows what he's doing - and I trust Him so I can't worry too much about it.

 

WE FINALLY SAW "J"!!!!! He dropped off the face of the earth for a week or two after a member (who was his friend/knew him) was super hard on him about smoking, and then he stopped answering us. We went to his house and saw him and asked him if he still wanted to see us/take the lessons and he is still very excited to get baptized! And he should be at church next Sunday!

We had so many people who were planning on coming to church but they ALL, all 7 of them, didn't show up... super silly... oh well there's always next week... and some of them had legit excuses.

 

I can't believe it's already 2015 and my 2nd transfer! It went by SOOO FAST! How does this happen? Everyday feels like a week but then every week feels like a day. I normally get to Sunday and wonder where the week went because we were just at church yesterday... lol Missionary time!

We are now a training area - all three companionships are now training. Elder Hess is now a Zone Leader (ZL) and in a different area. Our new District Leader (DL) is.... drum roll please... ELDER DICKERT! He did NOT want to be a DL, which was totally funny when we found out because we totally saw this coming. Elder Peterson (007) is now training too! His companion is super solid and is super chill. His name is Elder... well I can't remember so I'll have to let you know next week. So Elder Dickert is having me do a 15-minute training by myself! AAHHHH!! It'll be a first and hopefully it won't be to bad.

 

I have seen SO MANY MIRACLES!!!!!!! It is just crazy - and it's crazy how blind people are to the miracles because they choose NOT to see God's hand in EVERYTHING!!!!! Hint... God's hand IS in EVERYTHING!!!! You just have to look and see. 

 

We had to go to a viewing on New Year's day. That was not fun at all. So many memories that I don't want to drown in... it was soooo hard to not focus on that and to focus on Christ. But afterward we were able to have a meeting with "B", the Relief Society President, who is also a returned missionary (RM). We had a very good conversation with her and she helped uplift us and we helped uplift her.

 

I love y'all so much! 

Sister Brimley

 

Scripture: 

So as a mission we were asked to read the Book of Mormon before General Conference in April, I am going to extend that invitation to you, We did the math and it's 6 pages a day starting TODAY! 

I finished the Book of Mormon... finally. I didn't make my goal of reading it in 15 days but... I made it in 4 months... hahaha

 

I LOVE! the chapters at the end of Moroni... I think they are some of my favorite, especially the letters between Moroni and his father, Mormon, in chapters 7-9. They are so jam packed with the Gospel of Christ and puts things simply and plainly. Specifically read Moroni 7:13,16-17

And if you have time, Nephi Chapter 4:5-38 and look for the miracles and how the Spirit blessed Nephi.

Week 8 A Christmas Week in Missionary Paradise

Dec. 29, 2014

FYI... this is a long email... sorry :)

 

Happy belated CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and Happy NEW YEARS! 2015 came really fast...

 

Thank you everyone who sent letters/packages and emails. It makes our day when we go to the mail box and there's a letter!!

 

This Christmas was totally AWESOME!!!!!!!! Everyone was so kind and loving and thoughtful! So... run down of Christmas...

 

Christmas Eve we went to the Rhiners! They are a BIG family (10 kids.... one couldn't make it but one is married so... there were still 10 kids there). It was wonderful! The Elders came too! We thought that they had somewhere else to be so it was a fun surprise. We had dinner (some REALLY GOOD burgers... some of the best I had ever tasted...), did a nativity where everyone dressed up in sheets and towels and bathrobes and the like to be the characters, then visited for the rest of the evening.

 

Then... drum roll please... Christmas DAY and we slept in for half an hour! (This made me super happy!) :) We opened presents and then went to the Beasley's for breakfast (which was DELICOUS!) to watch their boys, N(4) and S(2), open presents and then we played some games. Then we went to Brother and Sister Hays's house for lunch and to Skype our families.

 

Lunch was ham (everyone does ham for the holiday's... not turkey) and had pie and a whole lot of fun stuff! Skyping home was super fun and nice to be able to see my family. While my companion Skyped her family I watched Hercules (a really good movie! lol). Then we went to yet another member's house with the Elders, the Atwaters, to have Christmas dinner. Any guess as to what we ate? Yep - more ham and mashed potateos... lol it was super yummy! I had a wonderful Christmas all around. :)

 

This Christmas season it was very hard to have solid appointments and most fell through - BUT - this just made it so that we had to ask Heavenly Father where we needed to go and then follow the spirit. Because we did that we now have about six potential investigators (PI)!

 

We were tracting handing out the "He is a Gift" cards and the first door we knocked on we had a lesson and now she's a PI! She was very open and excited! (We hope that she still is!) Her name is actually really cool! Shaellena (Allena with Sh at the front). We tried to go find where she lived and we finally found it yesterday... after driving around for a while. It's a drug house and there are a lot of people living there. At first we thought that she gave us a bad address because the guy that answered the door was like, "There's no one here by that name" so we gave him our card and went back to the car. We got in and then heard someone yelling. We rolled down the window and the guy was yelling out the window that she was there but that we had said her name wrong but that she was in the shower, so we are going to go back... and hopefully we can figure out a better place to meet.

 

Then we had some extra time Christmas Eve before we had to stop proselyting so we tracted. We placed 5 cards, but we talked with 5 people and 3 of them are now PI and we have appointments to go back! On a different day we were tracting again and we got 2 more investigator! 

 

Yesterday was so amazing! I woke up and my back was feeling really weird... (you know the sensation you get sometimes when you lay down after a long day and your back just relaxes? Well it felt like that but the muscles were tightening... it was really weird). I couldn't really stand so I had Sister Eschenbrenner shower first. While she was in there I sat on the couch and prayed that I would be able to stand and do everything we needed to do. I acted in faith and got up and was able to take a shower and my back stopped hurting. It was awesome, but that's only the beginning. We had 3 AMAZING talks that the ward really needed, all about how we need to be continually turning toward God and casting off the natural man...and it was done with so much love that you WANTED to listen and change.

 

During Relief Society (which is "the greatest women's organization"), one of the Sisters came up behind me and surprised me with a hug. I was not feeling like myself and it was the perfect timing. After church we tried to go and see a bunch of people but no one was home so we went to a less active (LA) member's house that we had tried this whole transfer to see AND SHE WAS HOME!!!! We taught her the first lesson. Her son (who isn't a member and is 9) wanted to join in and take the lessons! HE ACCEPTED TO BE BAPTIZED! This member has a Saint Bernard that doesn't know he's not a puppy anymore and tries to sit on your lap. He would just bury his head in my lap and it was one of my miracles for the day as it filled a void that Jake left (for those who don't know Jake was our dog. I was almost 8 when he showed up on our doorstep just a week after my baby brother, Adam, died ten years ago. Jake means A LOT to me). That big puppy love was very healing for me.

 

After we were done with that visit we went to see "K". We had to drop her about two weeks ago but she reached out to us this week so we decided to stop by and see if she was home (she never was before) and SHE WAS HOME! We were about to read the Book of Mormon with her and she ACCEPTED TO BE BAPTIZED at the end of January.

Before we left she asked us what the church thought about spirits, like evil spirits. She explained that she thought that there was a spirit there because her last house burned down by a fire and then she got moved to another house in the same neighborhood (this is not a good part of town) and there have been a few close calls for this house, too. The burners will be on and then at night when she goes to bed the thermostat is at 60 and then she wakes up at 5 am (it's always 5 am) and it's at 90. We offered to dedicate the house and cast any spirits out. As soon as we offered to do this, the heater turned on full blast. We went on anyway and the feeling of the room changed into one of hostility. Sister E had "K" kneel with us and she proceeded to pray. As soon as she said, "In the name of Jesus Christ we command you to leave", the feeling of the room changed. There was no more hostility and the spirit of the Lord was there. We left shortly after.

 

We then both felt prompted to drive the 100 yards to "R"s house (same neighborhood) and so we did. "R" was outside and saw us coming and later in the lesson she mentioned that she thought she saw THREE people coming. We definitely had a guardian angel protecting us from that spirit we cast out... he was mad... we could feel it.

 

This week was amazing and that's only part of it. :)

 

I Love you all but I'm running out of time.

 

Happy New Year! 2015 - Here we come!

 

Love,

Sister Megan Brimley

 

Scripture: Mormon 9... the WHOLE CHAPTER! you can do it! verse 24 is cool... :)

... and the pic... what can I say :) me and my crazy first district (left to right: Elder Peterson[007], Elder Hess [district leader], Elder Dickert, Elder Dixion, Sister ME:), and Sister Eschenbrenner)

 

 

Week 7 Yet another week in Missionary Paradise

Dec. 22, 2014

WOW... This week has been crazy and we have been so busy, but not in the ways that we are planning. We had a plan and solid appointments set. We would get there and they fell through... basically ALL of them. We have had to do some house cleaning of our investigators and "drop" them from the list because they are not progressing :( which sucked and was hard... but we are going to reach out to them after this crazy Christmas season. :)

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!!!! The first couple of weeks were rough and I was learning a crazy TON! but now I feel like a missionary and trust that I am here for a reason at THIS! time. :)

Investigators.: "J" cancelled on us... again. It is so hard when he says one thing and then does another. We don't think that he realizes that Satan is working REALLY HARD to get him to not be baptized, but we are working with him and he'll get there, so we have no baptismal dates... at all. It seems like our job right now is to do the ground softening which is hard work and we don't see many results. I mean think about it, in Spring if you want a garden you need to till or turn over the ground and when you are done the only noticeable difference is that the ground is a little darker.  BUT - it makes it possible for the seed to BE planted and be able to grow :) so its super important but hard at the same time.

The ward here is AMAZING!!!!!! They are all so generous and excited about missionary work. We have received sooo many gifts from them :) and we have SOOO MUCH FOOD! Everyone wants to make sure we have been fed these last few weeks so I really don't have to buy food this week. We have about two weeks worth of food, not to mention that we have dinner at least 3-5 times a week with members. We have a lot of food...we are so blessed.

Ok.... funny story... so last Monday we had dinner with a new family in the ward (the Tolman's) that moved from Utah... they live way out in the middle of nowhere and they invited both sets of missionaries (Elder Dickert and Elder Dixion and us). We finally found their house after turning around ALOT!
 

6 pm: We pull into the driveway and are late so we call the Elders to see if they were already there. We weren't sure if it was the right house. We asked them if they were already there and they said, "We are stuck in the mud". We thought they were joking but they weren't. We just sat there and laughed. We asked if they wanted us to send Bro Tolman but they said, "No."
 

6:30 pm: We went inside and chatted for about half an hour and then I texted the Elders to see if they were unstuck.... the answer was no... so we called them and sent Bro Tolman out to help. We had a nice long conversation with Sister Tolman (who is Brazilian! I come to Illinois and eat Brazilian food... SWEET! lol)
 

7:30 pm: An hour after we had sent Bro Tolman out, Sister Tolman calls her husband and finds out that BOTH cars were stuck and that they had called another member in the ward to come get both of them unstuck.

8 pm: We start eating dinner without the men....

8:30 pm: We leave and text the Elders to see if they are unstuck. FINALLY - after about 3 1/2 hours, they were unstuck and on their way to eat.... lol
 

We saw the Elders the next day at district meeting and their car was hilarious to see! It was COVERED in mud... and they showed us the inside... which was also covered in mud... lol

It is so awesome here. We are so blessed (even though our plans fall through).

I love you all and miss you... but I LOVE being here... so y'all just have to wait... (yes, they do say "y'all" here)

-Sister Brimley

Scriptures :)

D&C 50:25 and 3 Nephi 19:25 and Light of Christ in the Bible Dictionary... and look at the LIGHT! and what it can and will do!

 Sister Eschenbrenner

Indian Food from Aunt Dyann

Week 6 Another week in Missionary Paradise

Dec. 15, 2014

Hope everyone's week has been wonderful and full of the many miracles that are in our lives. This Christmas Season was been pretty amazing... The "He is the Gift" video is so cool and brings the spirit so strongly.

This week has been overall good but it was a little rocky for a few days. We had SO MANY MEMBER PRESENT LESSONS THIS WEEK! (Member present lessons are where we have a member with us when we go and teach an investigator...) Those have been really hard to coordinate because our area is so big and there are so few members and everyone has busy schedules and... a life... weird... lol. We have been working really hard and we are not getting results right now but the Lord is blessing us for the hard work we do and that makes it worth it.

Investigators.: "J" had a baptism date set for the 27th of this month (the date we pushed it back to) and he knew that he had to come to church this week and next to make that happen but... he didn't come, he texted us and said he had to do laundry and Christmas shopping.... that guy... We went over and saw him after church and had a good conversation with him and we have 2 appointments set with him this week. He even shared with us that he had received the answer to his prayer to know if the church was true (cool story...). He prayed and asked God his question and then flipped open his scriptures and started reading. It was a story about how wicked people had come to attack the righteous and the wicked lost because they did not have the gospel/God on their side.... and he even said THIS IS THE TRUE CHURCH! Now he just needs to get himself to church so he can be baptized. He wants it so bad and Satan is working SOO hard on him.

This Sunday was super awesome and a great way to end this hard week. Sister Eschenbrenner and Sister R (an extremely talented sister in the ward) and I sang Silent Night with a descant that Sister E's grandpa wrote. It was beautiful! And the talks were awesome! Amy (a young women who is going to go on a mission and applying to the Provo BYU) gave a 20-min talk on missionary work. There are two things I wrote down from her talk: 1) Success is achieved by inviting people to come and learn of Christ, and 2) friends: you make friends through missionary work. Then Elder Dickert spoke on... what do you know... missionary work! He shared a really cool story that I'll share... He started by having everyone close their eyes and imagine that they were going to a lake to go cliff diving. There are two cliffs that you can jump off of, but there is one more cliff that is higher than both of the cliffs and no one is gutsy enough to go and jump off of that one. You decide that you are. You climb up to the top and are looking down at the water far below. You think about how long you will be in the air, how far you will have to go to clear the rocks, how fast you will have to run, etc. You end up just standing there and are about ready to turn around and go back down when you see someone (a friend of a friend, you don't know at all) in the water below struggling to keep their head above the water and the people on the shore are too far away to help. The only way to help them is to jump - you don't have time to climb down. What do you do? Did you jump? What if that person is your best friend? Would you jump then? This is what it's like to do missionary work. You are reaching out to people and saving them. Kind of a cool illustration of what missionary work is like.

Sunday night Sister E was having a really hard time and I spent a long time trying to comfort her. The phone rang and it was a member seeing if we could come over for dinner asap, so I just ended up on the drive over just saying things I was thankful for. It's amazing how turning to look at all your blessings brings the spirit and comforts all our hurts.

A cool Spiritual/Scriptural thought that I had about the prophets in the Book of Mormon: There are many that worked REALLY hard and never saw the effect that they had. For instance, Samuel the Lamanite. I was reading in Helaman about Samuel the Lamanite and how he was a missionary and was working so hard to call the Nephites unto repentance and how they would not listen. So when he was on his way home after he had been kicked out of the city, I could imagine that he was just thinking about all the people he had talked to and had tried to share with but had rejected him and Christ and how that probably weighed very heavily on his heart. I am sure he was also praying to Heavenly Father and telling about what he was thinking and the disappointment that he probably felt. Then God told him to turn around and go back, to say whatever came to his heart. When Samuel came to the city he was not allowed to enter by the gate (he had been kicked out and the guard undoubtedly remembered him) so he did the only thing he could think of - climb the city wall. (Imagine yourself there, on top of a 7-8 foot wall watching the people you had tried to teach, that you loved because as a missionary you love the people you teach and care about them). There was probably a lot of noise as a city of people move around, but Samuel opened his mouth and started speaking, (that is the hardest part, starting when you have nothing to say) and God gave him amazing things to say to the people. I assume the city became silent and listened to Samuel, until people began to scorn and yell back at him. Some even thought that they would throw stones and shoot arrows to get him off the wall and to stop the prophecies that he was sharing. Once Samuel was done prophesying I am sure that the Spirit told him to LEAVE-and fast-so he did. He could not stay to see the good that had come from him following and sharing the gospel. He never came back to that people, we went back to do other things that the Lord wanted him to do. Sometimes we may feel like we are not being successful because people are not following through and are not listening. But we are doing the will of the Lord and we ARE blessing the lives of others and are helping them come closer to Christ. :)

Anyway I am running out of time :) I love you all and think of you more often than I should.

Love,

Sister Megan Brimley

Scripture for the week:

3 Nephi 11-26 but specifically chapter 18:24-25 

-from 3 Nephi 17:17 "and no man can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father"

and for Christmas time... Alma 7:10-13 and why is it so important for us to celebrate the birth of Christ when it was his suffering and death that we can receive a remission of our sins and eternal life from?

Week 5

Dec. 8, 2014

Hey everyone!

This week has been hard. I have had to learn and grow and stretch in ways that I didn't want to. That was really hard and humbling. Our teaching pool and investigator numbers dropped and we had no control over it, and we have been WORKING really HARD! so that's a little frustrating. But there have been so many miracles this week! One thing that we do as a companionship is to, at the end of the day, talk about any miracles that happened that day :) (a good habit to be in anyway!). The one that stands out the most is was actually on exchanges, the STL (sister training leader) and I were in Glen Carbon for a day and we went out working with one of the members and then when that was over we went to the last meeting for the night, when we got back to our apartment that sister and her mom were waiting for us... and they had gone tracting by themselves! and handed out the He is the Gift cards and wanted more! it was awesome!

Investigators... there is a lady named Kendra and she is so excited about seeing us when we actually see her but our appointments always fall through... don't know why but we'll teach her :) she wants it but she has to make the time for it. Joe... Joe has been cutting back on his smoking! and that is awesome... he has just become absent from our appointments... mostly because of work so we are trying to figure out a better way/time to teach and get him to lessons, unfortunately we had to push back the baptism date, but he now knows exactly what he needs to do to be baptized!

Our ward is small but everyone is super excited for the Christmas season and they have a RS(Relief Society) Christmas dinner, a Ward Christmas dinner, and a Christmas Cantata... its been fun :) 

We got to watch the Christmas devotional last night... not a big turn out... the Elders, us and then the RS president (Sister Fisher) showed up right before it started... so we had the place to ourselves basically :) we made hot chocolate and Sister Fisher had brought cookies that were super yummy :) I love the focus on applying who Mary, Joseph, Christ and the family as a whole to ourselves... how can WE be more like them and take on their attributes? It was super good!

We had the opportunity to actually go tracting this week! we went to a place called Iuka.... we drove through it in 5 mins... and missed the turn... sooo... we had to turn around... this town had about 5-8 streets and there was a baptist church in the middle. we started knocking on doors and not many people were home and the people who were home were baptist that, funny enough, went to the baptist church in the next town.... eventually we got back to the car because we had handed out all the cards we had and then went to the other side of town. EVERY door we knocked on we had a really good conversation with and... set up a return appointment!! (that is the hardest thing to done....)

I love you all! 

Sister Brimley

Scripture: Alma 7:10-12 

PS: The best way to help me and to support me is to pray and serve the missionaries in your ward, if you can go out on appointments with them! share with them people who might be ready to hear the gospel... and... if you got the ensign you got 9 He is the Gift cards... they are gifts and need to be shared :)

MOM NOTE: Can you just hear her singing to the tune of, "Do you want to build a Snowman"?:
"Do you want a Book of Mormon? I've got one right here in my car.
You'll learn more of Jesus Christ, to choose the right, live always in God's sight."

Pics from a cool yard we found

Week 4

Dec. 1, 2014

I can't believe it's only been and already been 2 WEEKS in the field! Time is flying but crawling at the same time!

This week I have had a lot of opportunities to study. Monday was P-day and then we visited a less active after dinner with a member family (they have us come over and do our laundry). Then on Tuesday we had district meeting (which is normally on Thursday) and President interviews, we had to drive down to O'Fallon (which takes about 1&1/2-2hrs to drive there) and then the meeting went long and by the time we got back to the apartment it was almost 7 hours total...didn't get much done...had dinner with the King's (a member family) and then we went and to talk to a Sister that is going through a SUPER hard time right now and unintentionally spent the whole evening there, but she needed to feel God's love and be reminded that he IS there and does care.

Wednesday, IT SNOWED! And we got an actual full day of proselyting done! Then it was Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving was fun here. We went to a members house (Sister C) and played pool and ate lots of good food! Then we went to Brother and Sister M's house for pie :) They are like Grandparents to all the missionaries and are AWESOME! They are super funny and very sweet and thoughtful! Friday Sister Eschenbrenner woke up super sick and couldn't get out of bed - I studied ALOT - like 5-7 HOURS! Then that evening she asked for a blessing and Brother M and Brother G (one of the high council I think... not sure) came over and gave her one. Saturday she was feeling a little better but not a lot. We actually got some companion study and some of the 12-week training program done.... and then she was back in bed for the rest of the day. She was feeling well enough to go out to dinner with the M's (we eat with them every Saturday night). It was a short visit but a much needed one :) Then Sunday I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting about keeping the Sabbath day holy. Then 30 minutes before church started I got asked to sing... stressful... but a blessing, and Elder Dixion gave a good talk on the sacrament and a youth named Taylor gave a really good talk about the Sabbath as well. Then we (Sisters and Elders) got asked to be part of a Christmas pageant so we practiced after church and we went to go meet with "R", an investigator. She is so sweet and I hope she acts on the truth that she is receiving. Then we went to dinner with Sister S... dinner was good. Heavenly Father knew that Sister E had done too much and all the other people we were going to see bailed so we went home and did companion study. :)

That was my week... it was long but short... I had a lot of time to myself and I liked it but I didn't because that is not why I am here... so I tried to make the best of it. :)

Scripture: Alma 56-58 I love this story! verses to look out for and talk about (Alma 57:21,27. Alma 58:40. Alma 56:55)

Alma 53:20

Continue in Patience, Uchtdorf general conference april 2010

Quote: "PATIENCE means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can-working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of out hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is ENDURING WELL." -Dieter F. Uchtdorf

- Sister Brimley
 

megan.brimley@myldsmail.net


L-R at Thanksgiving dinner: Elders Dickert & Dixion, Sister Eschenbrenner and me
 

 

Week 3 First week in the Mission Field

Nov. 24, 2014

WEEK 1 IN THE MISSION FIELD!

(I will probably repeat myself, sorry in advance!)

Well the MTC was absolutely CRAZY! The scheduling was like... get as much done as humanly possible in as little time as possible - it was a lot. My district was great! I love them so much! Elder Dixion, Elder Jones and Elder Black, Sister Schow, Sister Snyder, Sister Law, Sister Walker and ME :) The district that brought us in was a group of Elders: Elder Waters, Elder Vaughn (I forgot the spelling but I know it was like this but it sounds like van), Elder Reyes and a few other Elders that I don't remember their names. They left about a week into the MTC (2 weeks for them) and then we got to bring in a district. This district had 11 elders and sisters! They were a good group though :) 

We got up at about 2-2:20am on Tuesday morning (Nov. 18) and went to the travel office at 3:30am, got on a bus and then a train and got to the airport at 7:30ish, used the phones to talk to family (Megan sounds amazing and happy) and then got on the plane, flew to Minneapolis and got on a different plane, (my wallet had fallen out of my pocket on the other plane but a flight attendant had already started walking to our gate. She remembered seeing me and where I was going) and off we flew for another hour... but we got delayed because they were still checking the wing or putting water in it or something. Anyways, about 20-30 minutes later we finally took off :) When we got to the St. Louis airport all 15 if us (there were other districts in the MTC with peeps going to the same mission) headed toward baggage claim. The Mission President, his wife and 6 other Elders were there to pick us up :) We got to the cars and packed up and headed for the mission office. Because our flight was so late we didn't get to go to the temple :( We went to the mission home and had a very good home-cooked meal, then relaxed and headed to bed.

The next day we got up early and headed out to a transfer meeting. We had a meeting with us newbies and the Elders and Sisters that are going to be our trainers, then the transfer meeting. I am with Sister Eschenbrenner in the Salem, Illinois, area. We share a ward with 2 Elders, Elder Dickert and Elder Dixion (from my MTC district!). We drove to the apartment (MapQuest shows Salem to be just over 90 minutes from St. Louis) and unloaded everything. Then we ran out the door to some appointments, got home and unpacked :) (Mom note - this also puts Megan far away from the Ferguson, MO, riots and such.)

This week has been a good week, but I have definitely been working hard and learning and growing A TON! It has been hard but so worth it :) We haven't been able to do much tracting because we have had appointment after appointment. :) Sunday was very nice - it was the primary program and it was really nice to have that as my first Sunday here.

Your Requested Info:

Mailing address: 1200 S. Marion Ave #9, Salem, IL 62881 (I will be here for 6 weeks at least, so about a week or two before transfers you're going to need to refrain from sending letters or I might not get them.)

Christmas wish list: a GPS, and that's all I've got right now. As I think of things I'll let you know

PICTURES: you asked and you shall receive (and boy did we!!)

Are you getting emails from other people?: Yes

Details on where you're at: I am in SALEM ILLINOIS. It is a farm/factory worker community. The people here are wonderful and have a completely different lifestyle than ours. Being out here I am so thankful that Dad has a good job and that we have been able to live the lifestyle that we have. It is super flat here, you can see for miles, and there are actually a lot of trees. There was snow when we got here! Only a little and it melted rather quickly. The temperature has fluctuated between 20's-60's, super windy, and rainy. And lots of farms, corn fields, and deer (hunting season started the day we got here). There are a few things that I have noticed: almost everyone smokes/has smoked, and there are many teeth missing... :) I still have all mine thankfully.

How your first week in the field was: First week was kind of crazy.  I have been adjusting very well but it's still an adjustment. I have gotten a lot better at getting up in the morning (Dad, were you ALWAYS tired when you were on your mission?) I still don't like it but it's better. I have met so many people! I am having trouble remembering all of them. But.... we got a new investigator this week, her name is Rita. She is a sweet old black lady that is already Christian and has a ton of faith and has a great relationship with God already! We have a couple of investigators that have a baptismal date and that are preparing to be ready. "R" (who is an older gentleman), I think he knows it's true and is just being stubborn and wanting to know ALL the answers before he gets baptized (he doesn't understand why having a beer but not getting "drunk" is not ok, and the same with smoking). "J" (a young man) is doing everything he can. We are going to start a stop smoking workshop with him next time we see him. And then a few others but I don't remember their names....

your companion's name: Sister Eschenbrenner
where she's from: She came from a ward in California
how you like her: I like her a whole lot. She is a health nut like me (she had aloe water in the fridge :D ) (Mom note - Yes - this WOULD make Megan very happy...)
etc.: She is a convert of 2 or 3 years, she is 28 and she has brown hair, glasses, and a beautiful smile, and she has been out for 4 month... all in this area (which isn't normal)
ward and stake I'm in: Centralia Illinois ward/stake

Scripture/Spiritual thought:

Talk by ELDER JOSEPH B. WIRTHLIN The Unspeakable Gift
"Have you ever thought about the amount of light and energy generated by our sun? The amount is almost beyond comprehension. Yet the heat and light that we receive come as a free gift from God. This is another proof of the goodness of our Heavenly Father.

The light from the sun breaks through space, bathing our planet as it encircles the sun with life-giving warmth and light. Without the sun, there could be no life on this planet; it would be forever barren, cold, and dark.

As the sun gives life and light to the earth, a spiritual light gives nourishment to our spirits. We call this the Light of Christ. The scriptures teach us that it “lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” Thus, all mankind can enjoy its blessings. The Light of Christ is the divine influence that allows every man, woman, and child to distinguish between good and evil. It encourages all to choose the right, to seek eternal truth, and to learn again the truths that we knew in our premortal existence but have forgotten in mortality.

Love you all!

Sister Brimley

Week 2 in the MTC

Nov. 17, 2014

Hey - so I don't have a lot of time.... and I didn't feel like writing last week.... sorry...

IT SNOWED! I'll try to upload some pic's - looks like it's not working :( and I don't have time to figure it out.

 

SOOO... you all wanted to know about the MTC... it's a lot like high school... which kinda sucks and it's weird being treated as a youth again. I don't feel like a youth and it can be super frustrating. I wake up super early in the morning and then go to breakfast and then to gym (which is not so cool cause I'm not awake and I just ate... not the best formula for me... so I'm excited to make it out to the field and be able to eat after I exercise), then I go to class (a 3 hour block of time).

 

My teachers are SOOO AWESOME! Sister Draney (like drainy) and Brother Littlefield. They are super awesome and one does the morning class and one does the evening class. Then there's about 3 hours of study time thrown into my day at random times and lunch and then another 3 hour class... this gets us to 8:15 or 9 pm at night.

My companion's name is Sister Walker - she is a bit crazy but in a good way. She makes me laugh and is older so isn't going through homesickness at all (neither am I... which is nice to not have to deal with). She is tall with brown hair and yeah, I got a pic. (Mom insert: We are so glad Megan's not homesick, nor didn't we expect her to be.)

 

The other companionship in my district is a trio, Sister Law (who is visually impaired, like tunnel vision or something...I think that she will be a wonderful missionary, Sister Schow (like Moscow but without the "mo". She is pretty solid and has grown so much. Then there's Sister Snyder (who is super analytical).

 

Then we also have a trio of Elders: Elder Dixion, Elder Jones (he's quiet but really funny and kind), and Elder Black (he is quirky... that's all I can really say).

 

These Sisters and Elders have become my family and I love then... I will be sad to say goodbye to them tomorrow. At least until we see each other at conferences.

 

Did I say the food is KILLING ME? Well the food here is super processed and is not being very nice to me... I'm so glad that I have my essential oils though... :) They have really helped!

Scriptures...

D&C 50:22,24-25

Moroni 8:8,12

Alma 40

Alma 43:17-22,51 (connected with Romans 13:12)

and a cool one... D&C 60:8-9

ps... I am getting a phone card and I can make a call at the airport... would I be in trouble if I didn't call? (Mom note: YES - she WOULD be in trouble if she didn't call!!!! :D Mom note 2: We got to chat for almost 30 minutes and loved every millisecond before she dashed off to catch her flight!)

 

Love,

Sister Brimley

Week 1 in the Provo MTC

Nov. 10, 2014

Nov. 5 - Gma & Gpa Brimley dropping me off at the MTC

Hey, the MTC has been super crazy and I have been going nonstop for a long time. yesterday was nice and we got to walk around the temple, and I got called to the Sister Training Leader assignment, which means I just have to pay attention to everyone else in our district and make sure everyone's doing ok.

I love my district here... and I'm really sad that I will only get to spend another week with them. We will all fly out together :) I have seen Elder (Patrick) Hanks and he seems like he's doing pretty good. Elder (Austin) Paxman went to the Mexico MTC sooo I haven't seen him.

Elder Hanks - Going to Colorado

I am having a great time. My companion, Sister Walker, is awesome. She reminds me a crazy lot like Tay (my friend, Taylor Howlett, Mexico City mission) it's weird.

It was so nice to see Andrew Ashby at his work (where I had lunch before going to the MTC). Out of all the people that are up here he's the one that I would have wanted to see the most, so it really was a blessing to me that I got to at least see/talk/and high five him before I got to the MTC. (And he got married shortly.)

 

Love,

Sister Brimley

Sisters Law, Snyder, and Schow

My zone

My teachers and class

My zone