Sister Brianne Watson: {Love} me some

Haaaaappy New Year!!!!!

This week was l o n g. The first week of every transfer is always the longest and I'll never understand it..but we survived! It was a pretty good week overall and we saw a lot of miracles and a lot of love directly from Heavenly Father. We got our first huge dramatic snowfall this past Tuesday which was thrilling! We got several inches and since we couldn't drive in it, we got to walk in it.. :,) we walked a good 6 miles to an appointment which ended up being a bust since the lady didn't want to take lessons from us. C'MON GRACE this was my first day wearing my brand new winter boots so you can only imagine the horrible blisters that are on my feet.. That I got in a blizzard.. Walking 6 miles.. She didn't want to be taught.. Blizzard. Blisters. Grace..

After that we went to Vivians and taught her a lesson which was just...interesting. As we were teaching in her tiny living room with piles of clutter (there are little pathways getting from one room to another) one of her 3 cats started doing his business in his litter box RIGHT next to me. So while I'm bearing testimony of how Jesus Christ should be the center of our focus in our lives, I have her cat marking his territory inches away. Sister Lilly was there sitting across from me trying so hard not to laugh and offend Vivian which made me try not to laugh and it was just a giant struggle. #missionaryprobs

New Years Eve was AWESOME WOW SO MUCH PARTYING YEP just kidding we planned and went to bed at 10:00 hahaha but we did go out and get Ben & Jerry's ice cream during our dinner hour at 8:00 so that was pretty rebellious (Not really). We did it to celebrate my 6-month mark and New Years Eve :) there is only so much you can do to celebrate events and holidays as a missionary! Again....#missionaryprobs

Let's talk about some miracles shall we? Wednesday was full of them. Last week we had a very hard time with our miles and we just accepted the fact that we were going to go over our limit and it was depressing. We calculated them throughout the month and we had hardly any left over the last week...we ended up only being able to use an average of 20 every day which was impossible since one of the days we had to drive an hour to get to the elders apartment so we were out of luck.

As we were sitting in the elder's driveway on Wednesday we decided to recalculate our miles one more time just to see how much we would be going over our miles limitation. At the end of it, we came out having 119 miles leftover!!! We have NO idea how it happened. The math didn't make sense....yet it did make sense...we can't even explain it! We had been checking it all throughout the month and now all of a sudden we had exactly the amount we needed to last us the rest of the week. We both sat there screaming with joy and praising and thanking the Lord for that amazing miracle. We had been praying that whole week for a miracle like that to happen with our miles. We are truly loved...but it doesn't even stop there!

As we began to reverse out of the driveway, our tires got stuck in the snow and we couldn't pull forward onto the road. The tires would spin but we weren't moving anywhere. Right then, I said a rushed prayer out loud asking for help to get us out of this so that we could make it to our next appointment. IMMEDIATELY a truck that was passing us stopped, reversed, pulled into the driveway, a man got out to push us out, freed us from the snow, and then left. We couldn't even believe it! Two huge apparent miracles in a row. We felt so much love and we were in good spirits the whole rest of that day :)

Yesterday we were asked to give the lesson in young women's which is always a scary thing to be asked to do....but since I'm a missionary, I didn't have a choice so there I was teaching about Zion to a group of teenage girls! I was so nervous but it ended up going very well and three of the five girls came up to us and told us that we said exactly what they needed to hear. YAY! There was one instance that after I finished sharing a thought I had about not judging others or something, one of the girls blurted out, "JUST FOR ME" hahaha

I came across my new all-time favorite conference talk this week called "The Love of God" by Dieter F Uchtdorf in the October 2009 general conference. I love everything about it! It reminded me that God loves me individually, personally, and perfectly.

"Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without compass, God’s love encompasses us completely." "He knows and loves you. He is mindful of you. He hears your prayers and knows the desires of your heart. He is filled with infinite love for you."

I have felt this love from my Heavenly Father and from Jesus Christ more apparent on my mission than any other period of my life. As I have relied on Them, I have found great comfort and exceeding joy. I have found a great love for serving and for the people in all of my areas. I have seen miracles and I have seen the light of Christ change people for the better, even myself. This mission is hard, it's demanding, it can get overwhelming, and the thought of home sometimes seems more comforting and appealing than being out here..but even if the opportunity was placed before me to leave right now, I would shut it down. There is NO greater way to learn and to grow than by reaching so far out of your comfort zone and helping people come unto Christ.

Sister Cox and I have talks all the time about how much we've learned and how far we've both come from being out on our missions. I have a completely different view on life and the purpose of it. I have a whole new reliance on my Savior and my testimony has grown immensely! I feel so blessed to have been chosen by a living prophet of God to serve in these specific areas of Bath, South Royalton, and Bethel. I cannot wait to see where else I am needed in this next year of my journey :)

Thank you for all of your prayers and love and support!!! I hope you all had a very happy new year and you all made a resolution to become a better servant of Christ in some way. There is always room for improvement soooo figure out where your weaknesses are and work to improve them! I promise that you will find great success as you strive to progress and become better. It's hard, but it's possible.

LOVE YOU ALL
HAVE A GREAT WEEK
MAKE GOALS TO BECOME BETTER
GOOD LUCK