Sister Brianne Watson: July 2015

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Happy :)

Wow, what a great week!!! Where do I even start...OH I had my very first lobster dinner!! It was interesting and I have learned that I do not like lobster. They literally just took this warm giant lobster and threw it on my plate and I had to break it all apart and oh man, it was rough D:

Our ward mission leader treated my companion and I to Dairy Queen this week which was absolutely fantastic. He gave us $15 gift cards THANKSTHANKSTHANKS. We had been walking many miles that day so it was a good surprise from him :)

We did lots of service this week for less actives which was great. I helped Sister W (she's older and has Huntingtons disease) clear out huge branches in her backyard and my companion did some gardening. She smokes, but her husband is very active now in the church. It's all so weird but we got her to church yesterday!! Yay :)

BAPTISMAL DATE!! Little 10 year old Caryssa has a baptismal date for the 15th of August! We've been teaching her all the lessons and we've noticed her mom who isn't active learning a lot and we've committed them both to pay tithing and fast and attend church. So this was an awesome double wammy!

Now about Dotty....oh dotty....she's our 79 year old investigator and I just love her to death even though she can hardly hear a word I say :) haha but we went and knocked on her door and we talked to her for a while and she told us about how her daughter and her husband both passed away a few years ago, SO as a missionary, we immediately thought of the Plan of Salvation. She was interested and loved hearing that there was a chance to see them again after this life. After she awkwardly complimented my tan for a while, we left and continued our day. A couple days later we delivered cookies to her and caught up with her and she talked about her church (episcopalian) and stuff like
that. She said she likes trying out new churches and is up for anything but she doesn't like the Baptist church because she doesn't feel "a spirit of any sort" there. Soooo I ended up bearing my
testimony to her about our church and the spirit there and I INVITED HER TO JOIN US FOR THE COMING SUNDAY. I was absolutely terrified. It was my first time but it just happened! And guess what..she said yes :)

Day goes by...we get a call from Dotty. "I'm so sorry ladies, I don't think I can make it. My health is horrible and I don't know what I was thinking when I agreed to come with you next Sunday (The 2nd). I was so excited and it felt so right when you asked me and I was so tickled but when you left, it hit me that I wouldn't be able to come due to health and I'm sorry." DEVASTATED. Satan is truly evil. But we will keep working with her because she still wants to learn the lessons!

Life here in Maine is seriously so good. We drive a 2015 Ford Fusion, we have iPads, and our apartment (according to my companion) is extremely nice for a missionary apartment!! And I'm in MAINE. The ocean is so close and trees are everywhere and I'm just literally in love ❤️

Another story..the other day we visited the Waterman's. It was rough..their faith is lacking and their doubts are taking over them. It was hard listening to all the struggles and trials they've been going through and hearing them blame God for it. If they even believe in Him anymore at all..but the whole time I knew I had to say something, I just wasn't sure what. But I knew the spirit would guide my words so I just started talking. I told them that everybody has trials, but it's how we learn. I told them we shouldn't think about the little things that don't make sense in this gospel and let them eat us alive. That's just a recipe for disaster..then, I told them about my cleft lip. (WHAT) I know..they had before talked about not understanding why God sends people down with disabilities and diseases so I guess that's where that came from?? But I told them how much I've struggled with it my whole life with surgeries, self confidence, etc. it WAS hard to live with it, but I wouldn't have the testimony I have now without it. EVERYTHING happens for a reason!!! It doesn't matter what. God does NOT make mistakes. Ugh. Okay anyways..

Now Paul...he's the neighbor to my ward mission leader that we met yesterday. At first glance, I didn't think he'd even be close to interested. He looked like a typical Mainer but we approached him anyways. He told us he was an "independent Baptist" but then he asked us a ton of questions about what we were doing and what we were teaching. He actually asked us if Mormon girls were allowed to date! It's hilarious the things people believe about Mormons...but eventually he became more and more receptive and interested in what we had to say and he took a Book of Mormon with so much excitement! We left, and later that day our ward mission leader called us telling us that Paul went to his house and told him that he'd already read 2 pages and he's excited to read more. Being a missionary rocks :)

My companion and I were in charge of a butter-making booth at a ward Pioneer Day activity on Saturday so that was tons of fun :) I'll post a picture of us at it! We also made homemade donuts at a the Youland's home. She found my mom on Facebook so she should be posting pictures of us on there!

If I've learned anything on my mission so far, it would be to trust in the Lord in EVERY circumstance. I rely on Him and the spirit in absolutely everything I do and I have seen so many blessings and people put in my path because of the faith I've put into Him. I am SO blessed and Heavenly Father is so aware of me and my struggles, but also my joy and successes. I am so deeply indebted to him. ❤️

CHALLENGE: in the MTC, we watched a video by Elder Bednar and he talked about getting regular paperback Book of Mormon, writing a question in the front pages, and reading it while marking everything that answers that question. I'm doing it right now and I absolutely love it. Give it a try :)

Love,

Sister Watson

Bath, Maine ❤️

I LOVE MAINE!!!! I'm in my very first area of Topsham, Maine..but I'm living in a cute little apartment/house in Bath, Maine :) it's BEAUTIFUL here..so many trees, it reminds me of Oregon/Washington and I'm just in love. my companion is Sister Crook and she's great! She's been out for almost a year and she's from Star Valley, Wyoming. We are finally getting used to living together and what not..it was a struggle at first but I'm getting used to it. She's a great trainer and I'm learning a lot!

We've taught and met a lot of members and less-actives this week, but not very many investigators yet. We had to meet with the sisters that were here before us (they were senior/old sisters) and they told us about who we needed to meet up with and stuff. Their main focus was the less-actives which is nice, it's just different missionary work than I had been expecting! We're getting there though :)

My first full day here, we were walking around the neighborhood visiting the people we had planned to the night prior. On our way, we saw three men in a yard working on something so we stopped to talk to them. I was scared to death because this was my first "street contact" or whatever but he was very kind and was willing to listen to what we had to say! We told him a bit about the Book of Mormon and he said he was willing to read it!! We didn't have one for him in our bags at the moment and he had to head off so he said we can drop one off on the porch for him to grab later. We ended up getting one and writing our testimonies in it and dropping it off at his house. SUCCESS❤️ that first experience got me soo excited to teach other people.

Next we go knock on a member's door to meet them but they weren't home so we continued down to the sidewalk and an older lady was next door gardening. My comp turned to me and said "this one's yours" and I was panicking...but I agreed and we went up to her and introduced ourselves and she was just as receptive as the other guy! She said she was a Methodist though so that was pretty hard. When we were about to leave, I bore my testimony to her and basically said that change is difficult, especially with religion, but I knew that it would be worth it because her relationship with Jesus Christ and God will be strengthened (which was her main thing in her life) and she will live such a happy life etc. Something like that! So we left her with a pamphlet and left. My comp could not believe how well I did..it blew her mind how "profound and great and straight forward" I was. I WAS SO HAPPY. These experiences were exactly what I needed to start my first week as a missionary :)

The people here are.....fun :) I taught two different women this week who both had beards. Yes...beards. And nobodyyyy wears bras so that's also thrilling. (I do, don't worry)

Also, these people LOVE TO TALK. They can tell stories for hours and hours and they don't even care! They'll spill their entire soul to you in your first visit. It's fine, it just makes it difficult to get a word in :) I love them ALL though. It doesn't matter what they do, how ancient they are, what they're wearing (or what they're not wearing), or how their house smells (awful most of the time), or how they speak. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. It's so weird how it happens, but I just feel such a love for every single person I come into contact with.

I just shopped FINALLY for food because I've been living off of clam chowder and rice crispy treats for the past week. The sisters before us didn't leave us any food and we couldn't go shopping until today (P-Day). But we went and got food, and I got to hear M U S I C :) I heard one directions song One Thing, a Shawn Mendes song, and Firework by Katy Perry. BLESSED.

Ohhhh and my comp is a runner.....so there's that. If you need me at 6:30 in the morning, that's where I'll be....ha hahaha haha okay.

I also went door to door tracting for the first time the other night. Got turned down everyyyy single time but it was a great experience! They were all respectful and didn't say anything degrading or rude so that's good. Maine people can get offensive but I guess we got lucky!

We walked past some guy sitting on a curb the other day and we went and introduced ourselves to him and asked him if we could share a message about Jesus Christ and he's like "well, I'm about to smoke some weed so..." And my comp panicked and didn't know how to handle the situation so she just walked away yelling "K GOOD LUCK!!" It was so embarrassing and SO funny...I was dying. Maybe it was a 'had to be there' experience but yeah...anyway.

I love you all so much and I can really feel the prayers in my behalf.
I do get homesick and discouraged, but that's okay.
Missions are great, God is great, life is great, and the pics I'm
gonna send are great. LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH❤️

We biked to a house the other day!!!! We couldn't stop laughing the whole way. We were such missionaries :)

Random House?

Sister Youland randomly giving us a tour of her house/yard...they love to do that. She's less active and her husband isn't a member. VERY kind woman! Here are something things in her yard that I thought were cool :)

Leavin' for Lil' Hamp!

July 11, 2015

Well, my time at the MTC is dwindling. (I don't think I've ever used that word before...oh).

Tomorrow is my last day and then I'm off to New Hampshire!!! I can't even believe it. I am so excited, it hurts. As long as the days were and as many death role plays I had to do in my time here, I really did love the MTC. I learned so much about myself, other people, Jesus Christ, and my overall role as a missionary. I officially feel ready to share my testimony and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people I'm serving. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY :)

I head off to the airport at 3:30 AM (help) on Monday. My flight leaves at 7:35, and I land in Detroit, Michigan for a layover at around 1:00 in the afternoon. I don't know if that's our time or Michigan time. (Family, that's most likely when I'll call you because I don't want to wake you up...you're welcome). :)

I have an hour and a half delay, then I finish my voyage to the East coast. YAYAYAYAY :) I am so ready. Seriously. Let's go.

Again, I thank everybody that took time out of their days to send me letters and emails and packages. You all have no idea how much of a difference a single letter/email/package makes!!! Just your nice words of advice and support means SO much and I'm grateful for all of you at home cheering me on :)

Thanksthanksthanksthanksthanks

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH AND I WILL SEND YOU MY NEW MAILING ADDRESS ONCE I GET TO THE LIL HAMP

Have a good week, don't forget to pray, God loves you, you're all great. Missionary work is great. My life is great. All is well.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH AND I MISS YOU LIKE CRAZY. <3

**Update**

July 13, 2015

Mom heard from Bri (Sister Watson?) at 6:00 this morning while she was at the airport! And then we just got off of the phone with her while she was in Detroit for her layover. She is doing great and is still the same Breezy! She is loving it so far. She said she hasn't heard anything but hymns for the past 2 weeks, but when they got in the bus to had to the airport, the driver had the radio on and all she heard was "This is my..." before he turned it off. Sad day for her. There are 24 new missionaries heading to Lil' Hamp. Amazing!! They'll have dinner with their Mission President tonight and then find out which area they will be serving in and who their companions are tomorrow morning. Can't wait to hear from her :)

HOLY MTC

OH MY GOOD GRACIOUS I'VE MADE IT TO P-DAY!!!!!! It has literally been the longest half-week in my entire life. I just screamed because it's only been half a week.....not even a full week! Hahaha so much teaching and planning lessons and devotionals and meetings and ahhhh.

My companion is Sister Rogerson and she's way nice! We get along great and we can really relate to each other when it comes to life outside the MTC. We were actually called to be SISTER TRAINING LEADERS holy moly. We are in charge of all the sisters in our zone and we have to do the New Missionary Orientation on Wednesday when the newbies come in. We give them a tour and calm them down and such...not even a full week in here and I already have a leadership position BYEEEEE D:

To be completely honest, these last couple of days have been very difficult. We're thrown into rooms with investigators and we teach them and help them understand and it's HARD. I thought the MTC was just sitting in a classroom and learning about things we are going to teach. But NOPE, we immediately teach what we already know. Very hard. BUT, i have absolutely loved it. The spirit here is absolutely incredible and it never leaves! I bore my testimony in fast/testimony meeting yesterday which was intense bc so many missionaries but it's become so much easier to bear it! My testimony has quadrupled since just a couple days ago and I have so much more to do/learn! Gosh I love being a missionary.

The food here is great by the way! Joe was right when he said it's a lot like school lunch. They just give you so many more options and it's better quality. I just miss my momma's homemade meals..oh well.

WE SAW STEPHANIE NIELSON (the burned victim from the plane crash) AT THE PROVO TEMPLE AND HER ENTIRE BEAUTIFUL FAMILY AND SHE TOOK A HUGE PICTURE OF ALL OF US AND POSTED IT ON HER INSTAGRAM PAGE SO GO FIND ME :) :) :) I told her that I love reading her blog and "my mom also reads your blog and absolutely loves you" and she said that it was nice meeting me and she smiled so big at me and I could just feel the spirit being around her family. Such a great experience!
Okay okay okay here's a story. I was standing in line for lunch and my companion and I were talking to the sisters behind us and we were introducing ourselves and the sisters told us they were going to California speaking Spanish and I asked one of them how the language is coming along and she said "mos o menos" *1543 laughing emojis*

I really needed that because it was my second day and I was REALLY missing my family and I know Heavenly Father set that all up so that it could brighten my entire day.

We went to a meeting to meet our branch presidency and a quote that really stood out to me was "Comfort and ease doesn't bring you to your knees." THIS IS SO TRUE. I have prayed more here than any time in my entire life. Morning, night, for meals, with my companion, and constantly saying them in my heart/mind. If things were going so well and it was all easy, I most likely wouldn't be praying as much as I am. But, it's hard here and I'm constantly being stretched far out of my comfort zone which causes me to be on my knees a LOT. So, i hope you all keep saying your prayers :)

Thank you so much for your letters and kind words of advice! We get our DearElders every night and it's definitely the highlight. Last week there was one day that we got letters since Saturday was a holiday and Sunday there isn't mail. The one day, I got so much mail and a package while my district got hardly anything and they were so jealous of me sooo there's that. I have the best family in this entire world and it was a day that I needed to hear from them so THANK YOU to those who wrote :) DearElder's are the reason there's still life here in this gospel prison..I mean, MTC ;)

Well, my time is about up but I love you all SO SO MUCH. I think about you soo much and I hope you're all doing okay. I know I'm doing great, so don't worry too much about me!

I'm so grateful for the overwhelming support I've received so far! I miss you. I love you. And being a missionary is the greatest thing I've ever decided to do. :)

Look who found Sister Kalie Watson!

Stephanie Nielson

Mom has followed Stephanie Nielson's blog for many years. She was in a plane crash and burned 80% of her body. Brianne also did a report on her during school. Needless to say, our family loves her. On Sunday, Stephanie Nielson posted this picture on Instagram. It was the BEST surprise ever!!!

(Bri is in the center)

Drop off - CHECK ✔

Well, we did it. On July 1st, we made it through dropping Bri off at the MTC. And by "made it" I mean the MTC guy told us it was time to move our car, so we were forced to leave. Missing her like crazy!