I left and went to Northfield for a day with Sister Petersen. I was pretty nervous about this because she's 28, she's been out for about 15 months, and she was just an incredible missionary. The intimidation I had going into this was so real...but I learned so much from her during that exchange. I can't exactly pinpoint what it was specifically, but she made me want to become better. With every single thing she did, she did it by the spirit. She didn't plan lessons beforehand, she would just go in with full confidence that eventually she will figure out what that person needs to hear. And it always worked! It was scary for me because I'm used to having a plan before I teach someone..and now I'm being thrown into people's houses I've never met before, and I had to think of things on the spot.
Thanks to some panicked prayers in my heart, I was able to pull it off and I knew the Holy Ghost was putting words into my mouth and thoughts in my mind right at the times I needed it most. I've always struggled with recognizing the spirit and discerning it between that and my own thoughts. Seeing her faith and her surety of her spiritual promptings, it made me want to refine my own abilities to recognize the spirit. Maybe exchanges aren't so terrible after all!
I was able to do my favorite thing at the Joseph Smith Memorial this past week...RAKING. I don't know why but I seriously love raking. It's a good thing I live in a land of trees and trees and more trees. There were inches of layered leaves ALL over the grounds at the JSM and we were able to help clear them up. It was super fun at first, but the leaves were wet and since it was such a thick layer, it was heavy to constantly be raking them. After a couple hours of doing it, I think I'm going to be sore for the rest of my life. but when we were done, we had a massive pile of leaves and sister daughter and I jumped in them and we couldn't stop laughing! Two senior sisters came down to pick us up in their cool gator thing and they said they could hear us laughing from clear up the hill..woops. Haha!
I also got my first official tour through it last Monday too which was AMAZING. I learned so much about the history of Joseph Smith and I still can't believe I'm serving in his literal birthplace. He only lived here for a couple of years before be moved to New Hampshire and then New York, but it's neat to see the outlined property of his house and the actual front step that he had as well as the actual hearth stone that he had for his fireplace. The spirit was so strong as I listened to stories in detail about his leg surgery, his children with Emma, the first vision, his martyrdom, etc.
There was a point where I had to keep myself from being emotional because the spirit was so strong. Because of Joseph Smith, I'm serving a mission. Because of him, we're able to read the Book of Mormon and come closer to the savior as we read it. Because of him, we have the priesthood and a church to attend each week and we have so many different things just because he prayed and asked a simple question. My testimony of Joseph Smith tripled in size after that tour and I couldn't be more thankful for that.
On exchanges we went and contacted a less active in their ward. Sister Petersen hadn't ever met her so this was the first time for both of us. We finally find this house after some long searching and it was up this huge hill in the trees (which is normal for people here in New England). So we knock on the door and this tiny old woman comes to answer it. We introduce ourselves and she just stares at us. She is silent as we stand there awkwardly waiting for her to respond...still nothing. She leans in close and says "WHAT?" She's completely deaf. We had to lean into her ear and yell everything in order to communicate!! She kindly let us in once she found out what was going on. Across the room was an even tinier old woman on her bed who looked completely frail and ready to roll over in her grave. She yelled to us to come in and sit down so we did. The lady that answered the door was named Virginia and the lady on the bed was named Madilyn.
Madilyn: (to sister peterson) "where are you from?"
Sister Petersen: "Kansas!"
Madilyn: "oh Montpellier! I just love Montpellier"
And that right there is just about how every conversation we had with them was like. It was SO funny. Virginia was nearly deaf but could see fairly well and her mom Madilyn was nearly blind but could hear better than her daughter..she's also 103!! They talked about doing the dishes and how they had to use their hands to tell if they were clean or not...so gross.
Then sister Petersen had this bright idea to sing a hymn to them. Excuse me....Brianne doesn't sing. The only thing getting me to do it was the fact that they most likely couldn't hear me anyway. After we sang I Stand All Amazed, the mom wouldn't stop telling me how amazing I am at singing... ?!?!?!?! I am absolutely sure she was hearing sister Petersen though because she sounded like a professional singer. She told me I was so good and it was just too funny because in reality I sound like a dying elephant :')
GOOD NEWS! We have a baptismal date with Stewart!!!!!!!! He's doing so stinkin great with avoiding smoking and drinking and he loves reading the book of mormon and he got himself a ride to church this Sunday and gosh I'm so excited for him! He's our little miracle
he is planning on being baptized on November 28. YAY :)Then there's our other investigator Jay...we went and helped him move his dryer down some steep stairs at his house because he's been having bad health issues. After that we just talked with him and his wife for a while and he thought it would be hilarious to make me try some sort of hot sauce. Him and sister daughety convinced me it's not that hot and dumb little me believed them. My mouth has never been in more pain in its life. I've officially felt that fire sensation in the saying "my mouth is on fire"! I started sweating and they were laughing so hard at me and I drank about 2 cups of milk and 29282 cups of water. Absolutely nothing was working. EVERYTHING burned and it was a burn that stung like crazy! I don't think I will ever recover from that. Just thought y'all should know..haha maybe one day I'll get revenge on Jay.
Our mission has a new policy where we aren't allowed to take pictures with our iPads during proselyting time because we "aren't supposed to look like tourists." sooooo sorry if there's a lack of pictures every week :( sorry! I'll do my best.
The leaves are nearly all off the trees so fall is almost over..ugh. The weather is getting colder and colder but at least it hasn't snowed since last Sunday! Cross your fingers that the snow holds back until at least the end of November...Okay well I hope everyone has an amazing week!!!! And happy Halloween!!!
This is in my favorite town of Woodstock
Does everyone remember my first lobster experience in Maine? Someone finally sent this to me LOOK AT IT IM SO EMBARRASSING.
I still love my footie pajamas obviously
Went on splits for the first time on my mission with Sister Edwards! She's a senior sister missionary and I love her to death. We got lost in the boonies without service so no GPS or phone was working so we had to stop at some random house to ask where on earth we were...
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