The Greatest Teacher

My dear family,

It has recently been brought to my attention that I have forgotten you don't live with me, nor do i contact you every day- so you don't know what is really going on with me- like who i live with. These are things your family normally knows.. especially after living with the same person for 4 months. Whoops! So let me introduce to you, Sister Michelle Brown. From West Jordan Utah.

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She attended copper hills high school and graduated in 2012. I was lucky enough to celebrate her 20th birthday with her a few months ago. yay! Upon graduating from high school she moved to Ogden to live with an aunt for the summer and got a job working at the local sizzler. As the new semester approached, she enrolled and attended Weber State University for one year beginning her studies in the criminal justice discipline. Her dream career would be to become a crime scene investigator ( she has found herself in the right neighborhood for that1 a couple weeks ago there was a murder down the road from us and the csi truck was there and the area was all caution taped off and everything! just like you see in the movies. don't worry. we are safe.) She felt like she was not reaching her true potential as a daughter of God while at college and felt there was something more for her in her life - entermission. and she was called to serve in the New Mexico Albuquerque Mission- reporting to the MTC 29 May 2013. (we did not know each other there.. met herre in NM) Sister Brown served the first 11 months of her mission in El Paso. neat. She served there in two different wards- both of which served the military bases there. She really loved it! and she especially loved being with the military families and learning from them. now fastforward to the middle of May 2014 and she moves to Rio Rancho to join Sister Stuart! who just loves to grill her with questions every single day :) one of which is what her dreams are.. you know me and dreams. Since serving with so many wonderful familes who have been affected, whether positively or negatively, by the military her career choices are changing. Currently, she would like to pursue a career in counseling to work with veterans suffering from PTSD. neat eh? She is a neat person. Upon the completion of her mission, Sister Brown plans to return home to a loving family of mom and dad and little sister. She plans to transfer colleges to a smaller one in SLC so she can live at home and earn some money to create a good savings account for her future adventures.  In the meantime, she is serving faithfully and loving inviting people to come unto christ. She has a very pure testiomny that resonates with power in peoples hearts. One of the neatest things about Sister Brown's testimony is that she has never lost it. She has never questioned the truthfullness of the gospel nor the positive impact it can have on any ones life - including her own. This is what she shares. This is what she is all about. (I feel like I have described a contestant on a gameshow to you...) 

We are also about having fun.. like making pancakes at 9:30 at night! literally- cake in a pan on the stove! GF devils food cake mind you- with alt the topping included. mmm. healthy? probably not. but delicious? yes! and great memories.

Sister Brown and I have had a pretty exciting week full of all kinds of things! One of the things that I LOVE doing - especially as a missionary, is service. and we have had plenty of oportunities to serve. it has been awesome1 and it seems that most of the time, it involves pulling weeds - and I can tell you I know I have grown as a person becasue I LOVE it! pulling weeds? who would? i never thought i would. But I love it now. ( no guarantees this is going to continue mom.... but I will gladly take over the lawn mowing!) except for the goat heads. Those are awful. if you think we have them bad at home- or across the street or wherever - come to New Mexico. home has none! there is a less active in the ward whose yard has been overtaken by them- so we brought it up in ward council as a possible service project for the youth or the scouts or someone to go help her out and it led to a hilarious conversation about them being native plants so we can't take them away. and I am doing a terrible job relating the humor to you.. must have been one of those had to be there moments..  or just another one of my fantastic stories.

We have also had some pretty neat experiences with missionary work lately too - I promise we do work. we do share the gospel. Actually, we had a really cool miracle happen yesterday, we did not plan for an effective day so we found ourselves with an awkward 10 minutes before we were suposed to meet our WML - so we decided we would jump out of the car and try to find someone on the road to talk to. So I pulled over real fast down the next street and we jumped out. No one was there. So I made the comment that maybe we should have parked down in our WMLs neighborhood and contacted around there while we waited for him. Sister Brown said "maybe. but maybe we are suppposed to be here." okay.. so we kept walking. still no one. I was ready to turn around when a lady walked out of her door. we said hello she asked what we were doing we told her what we were doing she said cool we asked if we could come back and share a message with her she said yes! then we left and sister Brown said "Sister Stuart, I think we were where we were supposed to be." right on sister Brown. it was cool! 

Also- we were able to meet with our investigator Juanita- we weren't able to see her at all last week. We didn't like it, but we questioned why it happened..  maybe she isn't interested anymore? maybe we are pushing toomuch? maybe we should give her some space? but hten we mat with her finallly and she said "I didn't see you at all last week and I missed it" okay. awesome! And now she is going to feed us dinner tomorrow and it is going to be so wonderful. She is great. and she always says to us that she has never felt so compelled by any religion before. usually she puts up a wall adn says no more. she has not felt that with us. and she usually feels like churchs get too much in her "business" but she doesn't feel that here either! And she knows the Book of Mormon is true! she says it is even more believable than the bible! and that it just speaks straight to her. Why we ever questioned i have no idea. We won't be any more. She truly is prepared.

Also, as missionaries, we have not so pleasant of experiences too though,. It is a bed of roses - but remember roses have thorns. One day, we went to contact a LA in the ward no one knows and while we were therewe saw this giant poodle (not the teacup kind. the real ones. that come up to my bellybutton) run into the road. Remember I still am scared of dogs. Sister Brown however is not - so she grabs it and starts petting it and loving it and checks the collar for tags. just a phone number - and no one answers. bummer. what are we supposed to do with a dog? one that I am terrified of! (this was not unwarrented.. it was growling and barking at me..) so we decided to knock doors - how about that approach for tracting eh? Is this your dog? no? okay- do you want eternal life? we should try that next time.. we didn't this time around becasue the first door we knocked onwas the owner! how neat is that! This little old lady answered the door - probably 80 someodd years old and was just so cute! she asked how we got her dog and how we knew it was her house. She was just so grateful! and.. she WASN"T WEARING PANTS!!! 80 year old ladies should wear pants.

We also learned a lot of important lessons this week - well at least I did. Sister Brown doesn't have the same struggles as I do so i don't know if she is feeling the same things i am.. but I am the one writing this email so i will tell you the important lessons I learned this week.

The first I would like to share with you is the importance of communication. it doesn't matter how long you know someone, how well you know them, how often you see them, how often you talk to them. you must communicate with them. and a crucial part of communicating is listening - not only to what they are saying, but to the spirit. The spirit speaks the things heavenly father would have you know. He knows the other person a whole lot better than you do -so my advice, listen. and when you are prompted to ask a question - ask it! It is inspired. and you will probably get the information you need that will help the situation a lot more than you ever thought possible. Communication should be as the spirit directs. that is something our mission president has counseled us to do- to allow the spirit to influence every decision we make. i would advise the same to you. it will save you from heartache and confusion and frustration. well, proabablynot completely, but it will help.

The second lesson I learned this week is not to fear failure. my greatest fear for my whole life. and guess what - I am cured! why? because I was taught by one of the most knowledgable couple, the Smith's, in our ward right now this last week. We had an incredible scriptural discussion on the parable of the talents found in Matthew 25. oh my word my mind was filled with all kinds of good things! But I would draw your attention to verse 24 -where the servant talks about how the master reaps where he has not sown and gathers where he has not strawed. How is this possible was the question that sparked the discussion. The answer - he doesn't need to. That is what we do? We do the sowing. We do the strawing. We use the talents He has given us and do the work. He trusts us. We cannot be scared to lose the talent in the process. The third servant was. that is why he buried it. He did not want to return empty handed - so he thought he would play it safe and stick it in the ground so he would have at least the one talent to return. He gives it back to the master and says "here, now you have what is yours back." yes we know the talents are the Lords- and he has given them to us to use - but we must internalize them. That servant did not. he was scared. Scared of what? failure? do you know why? Satan had a hold on him. The adversary does not want us to fail. what???? talk about an oxymoron! why is that? what does satan not want us to fail? well, think about it. what happens when you fail? you get up. you learn. and you do better the next time! Satan does not want us to improve- hence, he does not want us to fail. So, my family, i encourage you all to go out there this week and fail at something. and then improve! in the words of brother Smith, "Your greatest teacher is your last mistake."

Hope you aren't bored... Know that I love you all! I love this work - and i testify to you that it is hastening. Become part of it. as President Uchtdorf said - don't sleeop through the restoration. Live it. Spread it! I don't know about you, but I am not going to want to meet Joseph Smith or Nephi or Moroni or Heavenly Father and say to him- oh yeah, what a cool time that was to see the gospel unfolding. I enjoyed watching it. no- I want to say I was part of it! Awake, my family; put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust. This is the work of salvation. This is your salvation. I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love SIster Stuart

Representative of Jesus Christ

The smorgasboard of deliciousness. don't mind if i do!

weekly planning.. can't wait for mum's salsa! much better than pace's

We celebrated christmas in August! I reccommend it to anyone. It was wonderful. and I got a new ornament for the tree. wahoo! and an awesome pin. it was so fantastic.

also- we helped a lady clean her house! she gave me a scarf as a thank you- I put it on my head -and I found this awesome leather coat! too bad the arms are too short...

sister brown says I have toomany shoes -and I say, compared to what?