Sister Brianne Watson: Plan of 🙂ness

Today I am full of many different emotions. From gratitude...to sorrow. From hopeful...to mournful. Grateful for my knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. Hopeful that we are able to see our loved ones again after we pass from this life. Thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows and loves us. Blessed to have our Savior Jesus Christ who has felt every ounce of pain and sorrow we'll ever face and is willing to lift our burdens. My dear uncle lost his battle to cancer yesterday and it's been very difficult for me to not be with my family at this time. I want to be there to comfort my cousins and my aunt. I want to mourn with them and help them get through this but I'm so far away. As i thought about the situation yesterday, I couldn't help but feel so much joy for my testimony of the Plan of Happiness. This Plan answers the questions of our soul, especially the ones about where we go after this life. I know that my uncle Joe is happy and he is finally at peace. He had a long fight with a difficult disease, but he is now reunited with his Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ. He will be able to live with his family again, and that fills my heart with comfort. It also comforts me to know that my cousins and my aunt have this same knowledge and testimony...they are able to rely on those truths to get through this challenging time. I would like to ask everyone receiving this email to take a moment today to pray for this precious Giacalone (jack-uh-lone-ee) family. Prayer is so powerful and I KNOW that every single one of them are heard and answered.

This week has been very full of a million different things and i don't have a million years to write about all of it soooo i'll just pick out a few top-notch events.

We had exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders in Yarmouth, Maine! I was with Sister Vargha and we had lots of fun. We had a miracle happen while we were tracting...actually, we had a few miracles. When we knocked on the first door, someone answered and told us to leave because apparently it was a "high holiday" for the Jews and they were Jewish. Next door, same thing. Next door, same thing. The next man we met in his driveway was also Jewish and celebrating the holiday, but he was a lot more willing to talk. We ended up talking about the church and the Book of Mormon. He even allowed me to share one of my favorite scriptures with him! I proceeded to offer him the book but he respectfully declined my offer. It was just a miracle that he was willing to listen to us! Although he didn't take a book of mormon, we were still happy that he listened.

He then advised us to not knock on his neighbors houses since they were mostly all Jewish buuuuut we did anyway😂 it's a good thing we did too because we were able to meet Tom! Tom reminded me so much of Joseph Smith. He literally said, "there are so many religions and churches and ideas out there...how am i supposed to know which one is true?" GOLDEN! We told him about praying to know. We said that we could talk to him until he's blue in the face about how true our church is, how correct the book of mormon is, etc but he wouldn't know for himself until he prayed and asked God. We set up a return appointment so i can't wait to hear how it goes with them!

We had interviews with President Blair! It was so wonderful and he's so inspired... Back story: the day before interviews were exchanges and when you start exchanges, you sing a hymn and read a scripture and say a prayer together with the two companionships. Sister Rogerson asked me to choose a random scripture to read and testify of so the first one that came to my mind was D&C 10:5 which is my all-time favorite. It says, "Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work."

Sister Vargha liked it so much that we ended up reading it with a few different investigators/less active members throughout the day! D&C 10:5 is also on my missionary plaque❤️ but while i was in my interview with President Blair, i brought up some concerns and struggles i was having and he paused for a second, opened up his scriptures, and said that he wanted to share a scripture with me about prayer in the Doctrine and Covenants. Before he turned to it, I said "President...is it 10:5?" And it was! He said he felt inspired to share it with me and i knew it was the Lord telling me that I needed to study that verse further. I'm always amazed at the fact that the spirit works through other people to get to me...I know that prayer is so powerful and through it, we are protected from the adversary. We are protected from fears, doubts, temptations, afflictions, etc through the simple power of prayer. We are so blessed!

Okay i'm done blabbing. All i know is that i love this gospel. I love the Plan that brings us so much happiness. I love being a missionary and serving these humble people of the earth. I love finding those that are prepared to receive the gospel. I love the power of prayer and all the blessings promised through sincere communication with our Father.

Love, Sister Watson