I LOVE October

  Happy October! I LOVE October and the weather and the leaves!!!! It rained for the first time today since the day my family dropped me off. I can't believe it's October already. Time FLIES here! 
   So, I don't even know where to start haha. We got to go to a session in the temple last Friday with our entire district and it was so peaceful and BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! The Spirit was so strong as I was reminded of the covenants I made with our Father in Heaven -- but how awesome that I got to do it as a MISSIONARY!! So powerful.   On Saturday we had to miss class all day and ended up going to the ER for Sister Ankeny's asthma. It was a really similar experience with the whole Sister Serr thing last week, where I was frustrated at first because I was thinking about myself the whole time. I wanted to be in class. I wanted to teach our investigator. I wanted to do this or that. It wasn't long until I was overcome (again) with humility!! and patience. and long suffering. I was learning to become more Christlike and was learning SO much more than I would have if I was in my classroom. Sister Ankeny is okay!! On the way home from the ER we had to stop at Walgreens for a prescription. Chick-fil-a was right across the street..... Anyone who has ever met me knows my love/unhealthy obsession/addiction to Chick-fil-a. We had a driver driving us around and I was like, "heeeeeyyyy soo what if we accidentally went through the drive through?" The driver laughed and was like, "no, sorry I can't." I was very disappointed. To our glorious surprise, when he picked us back up from the pharmacy, HE HAD BOUGHT CHICK-FIL-A FOR ALL OF US. I literally squealed. out loud. in real life. I was so happy haha I am such a spaz. Tender Mercy.  So Sunday was unreal! We had fast & testimony meeting with our whole zone and it was so powerful!! Sister Ankeny can't fast so that was so fun and enjoyable to go to the cafeteria with her 3 times that day while she ate and I fasted :)))) haha I'm kidding, it's fine because I hate the food and am practically fasting every day anyways :)   We watched this AWESOME recorded devotional by Elder Holland called "Open Your Mouth." It was all about the power of actually opening your mouth to speak the truth. He told the story of Joseph, praying in the sacred grove. Satan attacked him, but he couldn't kill him, so he did the next best thing he could do to stop him, he tried to BIND HIS TONGUE so he could not speak.
   Joseph Smith recorded, "It seems as though the adversary was aware, at a very early period of my life, that I was destined to prove a disturber and annoyer of his kingdom; else why should the powers of darkness combine against me? Why the opposition and persecution that arose against me, almost in my infancy?"
   Sunday night we had to say goodbye to all of our district ,because we stay another week for Visitors' Center training. It was so sad! I know this sounds weird, but they seriously feel like family. You just learn and grow and experience so much with each other in such a short amount of time that it feels like you're with them forever!!!! AND we don't get to hug haha so we all shook hands goodbye and are already planning an MTC reunion :) It was the hardest to say goodbye to Sister Casey because she was the one who made us a trio and we felt so weird when she left. I love her and we are both planning on going back to Utah State together! Then me and Sister Ankeny started Visitors' Center training!!!! It has been the most life-changing experience. It's just me, Sister Ankeny, and the teacher, so we have a ton of one on one which is wonderful! The first day of training was one of the most spiritual days of my life. We talked all about Visitors' Centers and our purpose and the Spirit confirmed to me multiple times that this was perfect for me and I was meant to go to the Oakland Visitors' Center, and from then on it has been WONDERFUL. I would stay at the MTC for months if it meant that I could receive this training. We have awesome young teachers who all served VC and teach by the Spirit!
  We have been learning so much. VC sisters are sent from all over the world to receive this special training at the PROVO MTC. We have been applying everything we have learned in our classes to the VC. So instead of having a sit down lesson for 30 minutes or whatever, it is our job to PREPARE, then when they come in, get to know them while asking inspired questions to find out their needs within 5 minutes through the Spirit, then teach accordingly. It was overwhelming at first, but it's not US or our ability to teach. It's the Spirit! I have witnessed multiple times this past week of the power of the Spirit and its promptings and its ability to teach and TESTIFY.
   We got to go to Temple Square today!! We got put with a Sister and followed her around, did online chats and calls, gave tours, answered questions, got a glimpse of what I would be doing in Oakland! IT WAS WONDERFUL!
 I am so grateful for the advice Adelide gave me in a letter to be CURIOUS -- curious about your companions, curious about your area, curious about your call. I totally applied this today and I learned so much! I also applied my sweet Daddie's advice today and got an investigator from it!! He told me to talk to everyone. He said
   "When my comp and I would get on a bus, we would always split up and sit by different people on the bus. I had a goal to never be in a situation like that and not "open my mouth about the gospel (because I knew a butt-load of crap about it). So I got onto the bus this day and sat next to a young man in his late teens. I started to talk to him right away, asking him if he knew anything about the church. We didn't get to talk but a minute or so because the next stop was his stop. As he got off the bus he yelled out his address and said we could stop by. We found his house within a couple of days and ended up baptizing his family of 5. I realized from that experience that had I just sat down next to my companion and taken a second to relax, I never would have brought the gospel to his family."
 
I was seriously so inspired by this story. My Daddie is my hero and one of my most faithful letter writers :))
 Happy birthday sweet Sawyer and Daddie, I love you.
   I will be what is called a "solo sister" on Monday and Tuesday because Sister Ankeny is leaving Monday and I leave Wednesday for OAKLAND BABY so if any of you want to come be my companion, I am accepting applications.
  I am so excited to watch General Conference in the MTC!!
 
Read 3 Nephi 17 and imagine if you were there, as a Nephite.
   I love all of you. I am so grateful for all of your love & support. Jesus Christ is our Savior. The Book of Mormon is true!!!!! I can not talk about either of those truths without weeping. I am the happiest missionary, I'm convinced.
Next time I email, it will be from CALI! :))
Forever,
Sister Brinton

We can't hold hands so we hold pinkies. THE ZONE.

Sister Sorenson is from Oakland! 

I love my district!!

ALL the sisters in the district

pray for us...

Elder Dallin Holding!!!!

"O" for OAKTOWN

 

I love my dr. pepper

   

  

The trio!

We love lunch outside!!

Brother Pliler (one of my teachers)

   

One of my VC teachers Anna Lewis (Jane knows her) She is awesome!

On the train to Salt Lake!

Sister Bean was my companion on temple square today!!!

Sister Meek and I love the waiting room of the clinic... 
We might just move our beds in here!

thanks for the shower cap mom :)

  

Sister Ankeny's mom sent us so much candy!!

THANKYOU FOR THE REESE'S GRAM

I LIVE for peach fresca!!

10 Days Down!!

Hi Everyone-
   It is seriously unreal how fast time goes here, but at the same time, it feels like I was born and raised at the MTC. I still love it here but WOW this week was a rollercoaster. I am too busy to think about or miss anything or anyone outside the MTC, seriously. I love all of you but I am so busy and happy here. I am learning and growing so so much. I cannot believe how much I have learned and how close I have grown to my Savior in the past 10 days. All of my classes and devotionals and studies are amazing. I have already filled up a journal and went through two pens. I end all of my thoughts and notes with exclamation points hahah.

 Thank you for the mail!!! It makes me sooooo happy. I am so grateful for Sawyer writing me a letter and asking if I can eat at the MTC. Oh and can I just thank Ellie for spelling bishopric, BISHOP BRICK. 

   My new weakness is REFRIGERATED Reeses cups in the vending machine down the hall. Oops.

   I love starting my day out with yoga or pilates or a run outside around the temple under the stars. It wakes me up and it is wonderful. I talk to Him when I run. It's so peaceful. We have all grown SO close as a district, we really are like one big happy family, I love all of them so much. 

   So we began teaching out first investigator, Randy. Me and my companion Sister Ankeny were having a hard time teaching in unity and the first two lessons ended in tears and feelings of inadequacy and hopelessness. After HOURS of study and reflection and praying and revelation and PLEADING, we finally had an awesome lesson where he felt the Spirit so strong and even offered the closing prayer! The Spirit was so strong. I thought my heart was going to beat out of my chest. That feelings of seeing someone light up when they hear they can be cleansed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ is absolutely PRICELESS. Brings me to tears to even think about it. There are no words to even describe the feeling of having your investigator feel the Spirit after so much hard work to be in tune and be prepared. We had to work really hard on teaching in unity and I am learning patience and humility like never before.I have had to rely on my Savior so much this week. Sometimes I'll just pray in my heart, "Heavenly Father, please." Because I know He knows my heart and what I am trying to say and what I need. 
   Sunday was WONDERFUL. Sacrament meeting was beautiful. First sacrament as a missionary and BOY did I utilize it, I am very far from perfect and have a long way to go, but through Him, I can become! Relief society was so powerful. Everything is more powerful because we are all missionaries haha. We got to walk to the temple grounds with our district which was beautiful and such a nice break! 

   I took my Daddie's advice and joined the choir! It was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. If you want to feel the spirit, come listen to 2,000 missionaries sing, "Behold! A Royal Army!" I literally had chills the entire time and could hardly sing. We had an awesome devotional that night by Lloyd Newell, he does Music and the Spoken Word. Very powerful. He talked all about the phrase "Fear Not."

"For God has not given us a Spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." 2 Tim 1:7

   How appropriate that my sweet Daddie sent me the most beautiful advice this week about fear!

 "Having conceived of her purpose as a missionary should mark out a STRAIGHT pathway to its achievement, looking neither to the right, nor the left. Doubts and fears should be RIGOROUSLY excluded. Thoughts of doubt and fear never accomplish anything, and never can! They ALWAYS lead to failure. She who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure."

   SO POWERFUL. Teaching for the first time and preparing for the field can be scary, so this was super comforting.

  Then we watched a video called the Character of Christ by David A. Bednar. It was SO inspiring, all about turning OUTWARDS, which is exactly what I needed :) 

  Our Tuesday night devotional was by Craig A. Cordon.

 "God will proceed to make bare His holy arm in the eyes of all nations!"

  He talked about how we are His arm! My mom wrote me this week and said "You are His love, His mouthpiece, His hands, and HIS ARM." My parents are so inspired. I love that idea. We are his arm that he is reaching out to ALL nations as missionaries!

  We got a new district this week! I was like freaking out thinking that a week ago that was me, clueless and BRAND new haha. Since we are Sister Training Leaders, we are in charge of a tour and making them feel welcome and stuff. They are all SOO sweet and positive. They are catching on to my sarcasm quickly :) Its weird how you feel older after being here just one week. But I prayed to love them and I do!!!

  A sister in my district, Sister Serr, had a severe anxiety attack on Tuesday night. It was very traumatic for all of us, especially her companion Sister Casey. After hours of ER runs and phone calls and leaving campus to get prescriptions and meetings and interviews, she was sent home. It was extremely eye-opening to all of us. We learned so much. We all truly learned to drop everything, especially thoughts about what WE need and turn outwards which is just what I needed. It is interesting because at first when it wasn't too severe, we were all kind of annoyed that we had to miss class and didn't get to bed on time and had to sit outside in a waiting room for HOURS. We were frustrated because we were thinking of ourselves and what WE wanted. Once we forgot ourselves, we learned MORE than we would have learned if we were sitting in class. I could not have learned the humility and compassion I did that night if I was sitting in a class. I had never dealt with severe anxiety or depression or stress in my life or in anyone's life that is close to me so this was a HUGE eye opener to me that anxiety and depression are a real thing and I am filled with compassion. I don't mean to say I am happy this happened, but we all learned so much from it. We have a peaceful feeling now that she is safe at home because she was not safe here. So we are a TRIO now! I love Sister Casey and we pray for Sister Serr every prayer we offer. 

  At one point I had to walk her down to an office to call her mom. The first time she called, her mom didn't answer, so we sat and waited. Then she decided to call back. Her mom answered and when her eyes lit up and she gripped the phone, and said "HI mom," it plucked at my heart strings pretty hard. May have cried a little, but that wa probably just due to lack of sleep ;) Then she got to talk to her little brother and that really got me. i couldn't stop thinking of my sweet brothers. It was hard sitting there listening to her talk to her family. That was honestly the first time I have really missed you guys. I almost sunck a phone call in JK :) 

   Thursday we had infield orientation and we were in a classroom for 9 hours straight. It was sooooooooooo long. We bought some candy to hold us over :) BUT I learned a lot and I had to share this POWERFUL story that I know my Daddie will appreciate. He is one of the greatest men I know and has taught me SOOOOO much and so much that can apply perfectly to my mission. Our teacher told this story of a district who had not had a baptism in 10 years. Not one. Everyone would email the president saying, "don't send my son or daughter there," no missionaries ever wanted to go there, and it was a terrible situation. The Mission president received inspiration to close that area. A couple months later he reopened it and told missionaries it was one of the highest baptizing areas in the mission. The first month it was opened, a pair of missionaries baptized 45 people in 30 days. This story hit me so hard. he talked all about expectations and if you go in expecting no baptisms, SURELY you wont get any. These missionaries had high expectations and not only had the first baptism in 10 years, but 45 baptisms in less than a month. 

   Man I just wish I could tell you EVERYTHING I've learned. I love you. I can feel your prayers. WRITE ME its my favorite thing, besides the MTC :) UNTIL NEXT WEEK :))))))

   

   "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." 3 Nephi 5:13

   

XOXO,

Sister Brinton

"the famous mission map picture"

Volleyball for gym time! Go Aggies!

   

Sister Sorenson (Sister Training Leader)

"I always take pictures of Sister Ankeny when she falls asleep hahah she loves it"

HI from the MTC!

  HI HI HI from the MTC! Wow haha I cant believe this is real. So, I AM WONDERFUL!

  My Dad told me right before I left that a lot of people think they are better than the MTC and just think "lets get this over with and get into the field." He said, the MTC is wonderful and you should dive right in to get the best of it. And that's exactly what I did. Thanks Daddie, I love you.

   My companion's name is Sister Ankeny (ain-ken-ee). She is from Arizona and she is going to the New York Rochester Mission and the Hill Cumorah Visitor's center!! She is a convert of the church and was baptized A YEAR AND A HALF ago. She is seriously the best example of faith! It's hard enough going on a mission after being raised in the church, let alone only being a member for a year and a half. So awesome! I love my sister training leaders so much and one of them is from Oakland! Their names are Sister Sorenson and Sister Manoa! Our zone is awesome! All the elders here are literally 2 years old haha and all the sisters are grandmas. Its hilarious. Our zone has three pairs of elders and they are like little babies. I am like aaawww you are so cute like every second, they seem like my baby brothers. I cant tell if they laugh at me because I am funny, dumb, or scary but we are always laughing as a zone!!! Sorry this letter is so scattered, this is the most stressful hour of my life. We went to yoga yesterday (Adelide are you proud) at 6 am and kick boxing today!! (Dad are you proud) It has been super nice to wake up and work out, it helps me wake up and feel ready for the day!!  
  The air is cool and crisp, I can feel Fall and it is wonderful. These mountains are SO beautiful. They are spotted with colored leaves and I know me and my Dad would just sit here and admire them if he was here. It feels like girl's camp here haha like the dorm part I guess. Kind of weird. I put up a picture of my family and the Savior right next to my bed as soon as I moved in. My best friends.  My teacher is really outgoing and loud and silly, but can bring a strong spirit. He is great!! I am learning a lot a lot and we are doing lots of role play and lots of praying and lots of studying. I love it. My zone leader told us something that I love. He said make sure you find something every day to make you laugh or make you smile. I love that. That guy that hid from the picture is him, Elder Cranny. So I found out that I will be in the MTC for three weeks and the third week I get to go to Salt Lake Temple Square for two day trips!!! I AM SO EXCITED. 

   Saying bye to my family was sad for like 3 seconds, but I was so ready to go. When they put my name tag on, I was so happy. I just touch it and look at it all the time. I was so sad when I realized that I had to take it off to go to bed, so I slept with it right next to my pillow haha I am so weird, BUT I AM SO HAPPY. 
   So I am not sure if it just hasn't hit me yet or what, but ever since I put that tag on at 12:30 on Wednesday, I have been so happy. I am kind of like waiting for the hard part. Everyone says, "Oh yeah the first few days are rough, just make it to Sunday." But I am so happy. I love my class. I love the mountains. I love dressing up every day. I love my name tag. I love my companion. I love only eating fruit for all my meals because the food is gross. I love walking up to the 5th floor where my classroom is to be obedient and not take the elevator. I love sharing a tiny room with 6 girls I've never met. I love waking up 5 am and rolling onto the floor to pray. I love writing in my journal. I love the cool crisp air. I love my watch. I LOVE MY NAME TAG. But most of all, I love the Spirit. It has been with me ever since I step foot in here. It is wonderful. I am so happy. I just smile all the time. It is unreal what the Spirit can teach you if you pray pray pray. I have learned so much. We had a wonderful meeting with our branch President, his name is President Laney. He is hilarious. He is silly and witty, but sooo spiritual and pumps scripture references like there's no tomorrow. I had the incredible opportunity to bear my testimony to him of how I decided to go on a mission and I was OVERCOME with the Spirit as I testified to him that I knew I was supposed to be here and there is no where in the world I would rather be. Me and Sister Ankeny got assigned as Sister Training Leaders last night. I don't know what that means yet, but I am happy! One thing that all of my classes have brought up is this (talking about investigators) "How does the Lord view this person? What does the Lord want for this person?" I LOVE THAT. It helps up focus on the investigator and viewing them the way the Lord views them. We are only instruments in His hands. We do not do the converting. The Spirit does. I just love that. GUYS I've only cried like once and it was because of the Spirit, SERIOUSLY impressive for me because I am such a spaz and cry baby. 

   I seriously apologize for how scattered this is. I am typing as fast as I can. 

   We had this awesome Orientation on Wednesday where we sang Army of Helaman. TALK ABOUT POWERFUL. I could hardly sing. Instead of saying "And we will be the Lord's missionaries.." We sang "And we are now the Lord's missionaries." SO awesome. We talked about being a Christ-centered missionary. We also talked about serving two masters and having one foot in and out foot out of our mission. It was so powerful and I committed again to the Lord right then, that I was His. I gave Him my heart and I am 100% committed, 100% willingly. There is nothing I would rather do and nowhere I would rather be. 

   Thanks for your sweet note you left in my suitcase. It made my day. Thank you for everything Mom. I would seriously die without you. You guys should see how she packed my suitcase, I am so nervous to unpack it because I know I will never pack it the same again haha. But seriously, thank you. 

   I love my new shoes. My pictures by my bed. Sister Serr and Sister Casey are the girls in the picture of the group of girls. They are so sweet! We all feel so old compared to the boys I cant even tell you. They are so young. 

Yoga was fun. Me and Sister Ankeny in our class. And of course the beautiful temple with the beautiful mountains. I haven't had the chance to go in yet, but SOON.

   I haven't read any emails or letters or anything yet. I just hurried and wrote this so

   Thank all of you for all of your love and support. I would not be here without you. I can feel your love and prayers. I love all of the advice you guys gave me and try to implement it into my life daily. I AM SO HAPPY. A little too happy haha I think I'm crazy. Everyone is so stressed and stuff, and I am totally fine. I think it's because I just waited for so long for my call and I was just so ready!! I still have a lot to learn and I know it will get hard, but for NOW 

I could not be happier.

Eat Chickfila for me :))))))))))

I LOVE YOU

love love love,
SISTER BRINTON :)))))))))