Sister Brianne Watson: December 2016

Monday, December 26, 2016

The End.

I didn't think I'd ever get to the point of writing this. I am unable to comprehend the fact that this is my very last group email from my mission...it hurts!

SO MUCH HAPPENED THIS PAST WEEK! We had a Christmas zone conference on Tuesday and it was so so so good. I had the opportunity to give my "golden truth" and it went well! I talked about how change is a good thing, and we shouldn't ever hold back when we are given the chance tobecome better. During zone conference we watched a live Nativity scene by President and Sister Blair's adult children, we all gathered around a piano and sang Christmas carols, listened to Sister Blair read a story, and watched videos about the baptisms our mission had during 2016. Best zone conference yet! Plus, I got to see Sister Brown who I've missed SO dearly. #Blessed

On Thursday we got together with a group of about 12 missionaries andwent to Bath, Maine for a big finding activity! There's a huge factory called Bath Iron Works where soooo many people work and at a certain time of day they have a Shift Change where hundreds of them leave to go home and people come to replace them. That means that there are hundreds of people walking to their cars/home at the same time so we all stationed ourselves at different parts of the parking lot with trays of cups full of hot chocolate packets, candy canes, and a #LIGHTtheWORLD pass along card. As people passed by, we'd give them out! It was so much fun! Hopefully someone out of the big bunch will find interest in learning more about our church, right?

On Friday we did another big finding activity with 20 other missionaries in our area. Boothbay Harbor has something called Gardens Aglow which is a big light show and tons of people from all around Maine come to see it. We had the idea of setting up a hot chocolate stand in front of the public library and having some missionaries hand that out while the others split up to do some caroling or handing outBooks of Mormon or pass along cards about #LIGHTtheWORLD. These were two of the greatest days of my mission! My favorite part was when I was standing at the hot cocoa stand in front of the library and looked out into the center of town to a group of missionaries singing Christmas hymns beautifully, and several sets of missionaries out there bundled up telling people about whatever they had prepared. So much missionary work happening around me and I felt the spirit so strong. I honestly got a little emotional in that moment at the realization of all of this coming to an end. I'm never going to havethat opportunity again to stand with a group of missionaries just like myself sharing a Christmas initiative on the coast of Maine. I've been so incredibly lucky.

Yesterday was CHRISTMAS!! Such a great day! We only had one hour ofchurch but the chapel was FULL TO THE BRIM. Oh yeah, and right before sacrament meeting started our branch president came up to me and asked me to give a closing talk/testimony😳 you'd think you would get used to the spontaneous things like that as a missionary, but nope. I did it and it worked out though so it's okay! The rest of the meeting was full of pretty musical numbers and it was a great way to start out our Christmas!

After church we went and had lunch with some members, then headed to another meal appointment right after. It was so nice of them to allow us to join in their family Christmas meals. We were very
thankful :) then we zoomed home and SKYPED our families! Hooray! Most of it was planning what will be going down in 4 days, but it was so good to see them all and hear their voices. LOVE YOU FAM.

That's it for this week! I come home this Thursday afternoon so connect with me on Facebook if you want to stay in touch! Thanks to all those who emailed me, prayed for me, sent me letters/packages, etc. Missionaries can't do it without outside support, so thank you! I'm beyond grateful for this chance I've had to serve the Lord these last 18 months. I have grown in so many different ways and I have met so many wonderful people...I wouldn't trade this time I've spent out here for ANYTHING. See you in a couple days!

Christmas selfie!

Me and my girl Sister Brown 👏🏼

The Barkers fed us on Christmas Adam AND Christmas Eve!

At the library

Us with dear Rachel ❤️

The activity in Bath!

We love Thai food. And our elf Ella😂

✨Truth

Sorry it's taken me so long to send this out! It's been a hectic day....we spent FIVE hours at the hair salon which didn't go too well but hey, it's whatever.

This past week was pretty slow since we had two days where we were snow/iced in and another day where Sister MacDonald was sick so we had to stay in. Besides that, we had quite a few service hours and some great appointments with some less active members!

What I really want to talk about today is something called my "golden truth". A golden truth is something that missionaries learned from their mission that is valuable to them. We are given the opportunity to share our golden truth with the mission right before we go home, and tomorrow is my day! Throughout my mission I would ponder different things that I've learned along the way and I would always think that I had my golden truth figured out and under control...now that I have a week left, I look back and could easily write a novel and 7 sequels about the things I've learned from my missionary service. For the sake of time, I'll share 2 of them with you.

1. I have learned that prayer is powerful, and it is real. Growing up, I'd always pray with my family and occasionally on my own and I knew Heavenly Father was listening...but it wasn't until my mission that I began to feel connected to God through my prayers. I noticed that He not only heard my prayers, but He answered them in His own way and in His own time. He truly does hear and answer every single one because He LOVES us. We are so blessed to be given this communication with our Father in Heaven!

2. I have learned that the big, abstract, complicated, difficult to comprehend thing called the Atonement of Jesus Christ isn't so complicated after all. Jesus Christ knelt in a garden and suffered for ME. He saw my face and every emotion I would ever feel and willingly took upon Himself each one so that when it came time for me to feel it, He would be right there to help me. This atonement is available to me at any moment of the day and my Heavenly Father and His Son are waiting for me to read upward to apply it. They want me to feel joy, peace, hope, love, and all the wonderful effects from using the Savior's Atonement whenever I make a mistake, whenever I am hurting, or whenever I am in need of some extra love.

(I know I said only 2 but I have another one, sorry...)

3. I have learned the reality of God's love for me and for everyone around me. HE LOVES US! He literally wants nothing more than to see a smile on my face. He desires my success and happiness in this life and that will come to me through the gospel of Jesus Christ which has been restored to the earth. It is something that I have come to cherish. He reaches down to us in love every day, but it's up to us to meet Him halfway by putting in our own effort. That's another thing I've learned! We have to WORK to receive the blessings He has in store for us. Nothing is going to come if we sit back and expect them.

I love my mission. I love the name I've been able to represent and I love seeing the miracles come as I put others above myself. I love the areas I've served in and the people I've served around. I love my supportive family and friends. I especially love Heavenly Father and my Savior, Jesus Christ. They are so merciful...they took a rebellious teenage girl, took her where she was at spiritually, and helped her find the joy from living the gospel. I am so blessed.
This week is going to be AWESOME and I can't wait to talk about it next Monday (my last p-day!) love you all!!

My nena treated us to milkshakes at a local ice cream store 😘

I AM AN AUNT!!! My sister had a beautiful baby girl a few days ago. Her name is Lilly, and I can't wait to SQUEEZE her 😍🤗😊

Church was cancelled on Sunday because the whole area was ice...

Not sure how to explain this one 😂

Still a (Maine)iac

Hiiiiii everyone! Ironically, it's snowing again today. It didn't snow all week since I last wrote home. We woke up to a winter wonderland again which was GREAT :)

This past week was just absolute insanity, but that's nothing new here as a missionary in the depths of Maine. In fact, I even had my first wood splitting experience a few days ago! We grabbed some axes and took on a huge pile of wood...i felt like a true-blooded Mainer. It was definitely something I NEVER thought I would find myself doing! We had a lot of fun though and we were glad to relieve some built up stress. Missions aren't a joyride all the time, that's for sure.

My favorite experience from this week was actually our lesson with a less-active member named Sister P. I'll refrain from using her full last name, but we have been visiting with her every week ever since I've arrived here. She's been studying with a different religion because she has more friends there, but she still believes in our church. Recently though she's been reading the Book of Mormon on her own AND with us when we come visit. This last visit we started with a brief chat and casual conversation before i asked her if she would start us out with a prayer. She said, "no thanks, my mind and heart are empty right now." so I said it instead. We read a few pages and then discussed what we read. There was a verse in there that briefly brought up 'light' and I had a small feeling to use that to transition into the #LIGHTtheWORLD video.

I was honestly scared to death because it didn't have too much about light to completely change the lesson, but I decided to act on the prompting. As we played the video for her, she started crying. We gave her an advent calendar and talked about how blessed we are to be given the chance to serve just as the Savior did this holiday season. The spirit in the room was so strong as she sat there crying from the power of the video and message. After a bit of silence, she said "can I say the closing prayer?" This prayer was the most humble, sweet, and thoughtful prayers I've heard in a long time. She thanked God for us coming over, and then started praying for those who are sick, hungry, etc. She was sobbing and could hardly make it through the prayer...we got up and gave her a huge hug when she finished. It was so wonderful being able to see the spirit fill her "empty heart"...i am going to sincerely miss being the imperfect tool in the Lord's hand as He perfectly goes about His master plan to bring joy to each one of us.

We had our branch christmas party this week! The theme was "A Night in Bethlehem" and we had so much fun. Rachel let us borrow some of her old clothes so that we could dress with "biblical" attire. The decorations were so good and we had shepard's pie for dinner. We helped out in the kitchen most of the time because the people in charge of food backed out or were late...or just didn't show up. But it's okay! We were there and able to help. Sister Barker (who was in charge of the party) was so thankful for our service that she invited us over for dinner at her house for CHRISTMAS EVE!

Oh, that reminds me...on Christmas Adam (day before Christmas Eve for people like my companion who doesn't know what that means) we are getting together in one of our areas called Boothbay with about 12 other missionaries. Boothbay puts on a Lights Aglow botanical garden thing that EVERYONE goes to. We are planning on setting up a table in downtown Boothbay and presenting the #LIGHTtheWORLD initiative. We will pass out hot chocolate, play the video, hand out advent calendars, give away wrapped up Book of Mormons, and just LIGHT THE WORLD! I'm so so so excited!!!! Thousands of people come to Boothbay at this time of year to see the lights so we are expecting lots of success.

I stinkin love serving the Lord and I'm looking forward to what my last 2 weeks bring! Love you all, and you'll hear from me next week.

Rachel treated us to Subway 💗

Not My Testimony

It is December 5, it's a P-Day, snow is dumping and dumping and dumping outside, and I'm listening to Christmas music. Is there anything better? I don't think so!

We had a pretty good week. We showed lots of people the #LIGHTtheWORLD video which was awesome...and we've been helping other people do the advent calendar. I just love this Christmas initiative! I've probably said that 482 times before, but I seriously do.

We got a new car this week! She's a dark gray 2017 Toyota Rav4 and I named her Raven. She is beautiful😍

Sister MacDonald and I will be STAYING together this transfer! Since I leave halfway into the transfer, they'll have to bring someone in to replace me...but we are so happy to be together for Christmas!

December 1 was the worldwide day of service and also the kickoff to the Christmas initiative and it was SO GREAT. We had three different service appointments. We served at the Skidompha Library in Damariscotta at the beginning of the day, stacked some wood and raked the yard of a disabled man in the branch, and then cleaned an overflowing sink of dishes for a lady who had surgery on her hand. The joy that comes from lifting the burdens of somebody else is unlike anything I've felt! I hope you all had an opportunity to serve somebody that day to kickoff this Christmas season.

Yesterday was my very last fast/testimony meeting as a missionary. I took that opportunity to bear my testimony, but I really didn't know what to say right before I went up. My heart was filled with so many emotions and there were so many things on my mind that I didn't know how to put it into words. I sat in my chair as one person after another got up to bear their testimonies and I just couldn't get up! My body was shaking with fear and I was so nervous...this never happened at any other testimony meeting on my mission but this one was different--so I turned it over to the Lord. I told Him in my mind that I wanted so badly to get up and bear my testimony of Him, but I didn't want to be shaky with nerves AND I didn't know what to talk about. I didn't want to mess up my very last testimony experience.

Immediately in my mind, I heard the words "this is not your testimony, it's Mine." It hit me like a brick wall...My faith wasn't strengthened by itself! I didn't teach myself everything I know about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was the Lord that softened my heart and showed me the blessings of His church. It was Him that allowed me to have hundreds of spiritually uplifting experiences throughout my mission. It was Him that stayed with me through the days that were difficult. Following that, my whole body was calm. My mind was clear. The nerves went away, and up to the podium I went. I will never forget that valuable lesson.

This past week we went and visited our investigator named Yvonnet. We planned on teaching her one of my favorite lessons, the Plan of Salvation. We introduced the lesson and started a short video for her that talks about where we came from, why we are here, and where we're going. During the video she smiled and nodded at different parts and at the end she said "I have always wondered the answers to those questions...is there a way I can have that video?" I feel like sometimes we take for granted the precious truths of the gospel and we forget that there are people out there who have NO IDEA about our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, or Their plan of happiness. We are so blessed to know that we came from a heavenly family in the pre-mortal life and we lived with Heavenly parents. We came here to receive a body and to prepare ourselves to return to live with God again by living worthily and learning from our mistakes. When we pass away, we will be able to reunite with our families and with our Heavenly Father and our Savior. THIS is something to rejoice about. I love being able to share these truths with people who haven't had the opportunity to hear it yet! GAH being a missionary is the best.

Side note: my companion just walked in with tomato soup and a piece of
cornbread. She loves me.❤️ That's it for this week! Three more to go...

Our investigator Rachel made me my own loaf of banana bread😍

None of us could stop laughing during our FaceTime lesson😂

☁️9️⃣

Another full week of many strange yet wonderful things! I feel like last Monday was 372 years ago, but we will start there. When P-Day ended, we went over to the Small's house and helped them put their christmas tree up while we ate shrimp, salmon, and ice cream :)) #coastlife

On Tuesday we went on exchanges with our sister training leaders in Yarmouth. I was with Sister Knecht who i was in the MTC with and it was great! We saw a lot of miracles which obviously is something to rejoice about. I, being me, forgot my coat and it was freezing while we were tracting together. There came to a point where I was shivering pretty bad so Sister Knecht suggested we just go back to the car but when i looked at the next house, i felt a like we needed to go knock. We hadn't seen any success up to this point, but i felt absolutely certain that something good was about to happen. An older man came to the door and i offered to share a scripture about gratitude with him but he declined, saying he didn't have time. I was not about to leave without something happening so i offered to give him the entire Book of Mormon and he could read the scripture when he does have time. HE TOOK IT! That may not seem like a huge victory...we didn't get a return appointment or a baptismal date or a new investigator, but we gave someone the most important book of scripture that they will ever read. THAT is a victory to me.

Thursday was THANKSGIVING! I'm not sure i'll ever recover from that day. We had three meals right after each other and I think i'll be full for the rest of my life. But we were SO thankful for the support and love shown by the members! We were obviously well fed and we were so happy. I thought back to last Thanksgiving with Sister Cox in Bethel when we cried the entire way home from a meal appointment because we were so homesick. Honestly, this year I barely thought about my family and what they were doing because i was so happy where i was and who i was with! Holidays as a missionary are getting more and more fun because this place is my HOME. (Mom, don't worry. I still love and miss you😂)

Here's something exciting...on the way to our last meal appointment, i hit a deer!! Yup. It darted out into the middle of the road so i slammed on my brakes and I hit its back side. We were incredibly blessed because no air bags went off, we didn't swerve and die, and the only damage was a broken headlight. No dents, no injuries, nothing. We have no idea how the deer is doing since we didn't stop but everything else is just fine! i was shaking for a good 15 minutes after that...it was horrifying.

And now, we get to LEON'S BAPTISM!! It happened everyone, he is officially a member of this wonderful church! We had a couple of technical difficulties on Saturday which caused his baptism to be changed to Sunday after church, but IT HAPPENED. If something could have possibly gone wrong, it did. I was super stressed and humiliated and discouraged all night Saturday and Sunday morning but as soon as I saw Leon's smile spread across his face and light pouring from his countenance when he came up from the water, all of that washed away. All those lessons, the planning, and the challenges that came from teaching Leon and getting him to this point was all made worth it at that point. I am so in love with bringing other people closer to Christ. I ache to know that I only have 4 more weeks of this...but I'm going to make the most of every second!

THE #LIGHTtheWORLD VIDEO HAS OFFICIALLY BEEN RELEASED!❤️ hooray! The branch president asked us to go and present the entire Christmas initiative to both the Relief Society and to the Elders Quorum on Sunday and it went very well. We wrapped up tons of Book of Mormons in wrapping paper to hand out to people and we had some of the members take some to hand out as well. Our goal is to flood this area with LIGHT and we are going to do everything in our power to make it happen! If you haven't seen the video yet, you can find it on Mormon.org's Facebook page or in the gospel library app under 'holiday videos'. Please share the videos and participate in the advent calendar that they have as well! That's all I have for this week, love you all!