Week 48 - Humility

July 11, 2016

Locked in the church!

Crazy familia!!!!

It sounds like you all had one awesome summer week! I almost cried looking at the pictures remembering all our family but so glad that you could all have so much fun together! You still seem like the crazy family I left!  So crazy to be at the age I that I saw all my aunts and uncles at...it feels like just a few years ago! 

This week also has been crazily awesome like every other week, but I feel like I learned a lot this week! We got to meet our new mission president and his wife and they are the sweetest people ever! I'm so glad they are going to be helping us in the mission. 

Also, our bishop locked us in the church on Sunday cause he didn't know we were in the bathroom! 

This is us with our bishops family! She is also
 our pensionista and I absolutely love her!
 She is always laughing about something!

One thing I've learned a lot about this week is humility. Sometimes when you think you don't have a problem with something is actually when you have the biggest problem with it. My companion and I have been through a lot with it this week and many of our experiences of not finding people have helped us to be humble and put our faith in God. Well, I think it's working a little bit because we found 6 new potential investigators this week that really have open hearts and desires to learn! Nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach. 

Also, I wanted to thank you so, so, so much for the package you sent me! It came just in time so I could send those things to my old pensionista. Really, my favorite part was the letters. I love hearing from each one of you and how you are all doing and progressing. And thanks for the lucky charms and really especially the camera! It works so, so much better than my old one which is why you are all getting so many pictures 'cause I was a picture fanatic this week! 

3 of us in our district are turning 20 this week so we had a little party!

This mission is probably the most humbling experience I've been through in my life and I'm realizing more and more how weak I am and how much I have to, need to and want to rely on my Savior Jesus Christ. I know He lives and I know He loves us. My companion and I have finished memorizing the first half of the living Christ in Spanish and this next change we are planning on memorizing the second half! It has helped me gain such a stronger testimony of Him and we quote it all the time in lessons. 

Love you all! Keep putting your faith in Jesus Christ and remember we are all in a learning process D&C 78:17-20...that we are all just little kids still. All on the process to become like God if we choose to do so. 

Keep smiling!

Hermana Briggs

Week 47 - Confidence, Support, and a New President

July 4, 2016

This week so much has happened i dont really know where to start.
Well ill start with the crazy weird things...i finally ate something weird on my mission...cow tounge! And it was actually super duper good! So tell Uncle Ben we`ll have to make some tacos with it when i get back!

We also saw our first snake! It was big and long and gross so i just kept away from it...it was trying to eat giant rats. Gable would have loved it!
And i cut my hair finally...it was so gross. I was just scared to let anyone touch it, so i gave my scizzors to my companion Hermana Vazquez and she did an absolutely fabulous job for cutting hair for the first time in her life :) No regrets there!

Hermana Vazquez was also sick for this entire last week so it gave me a good chance to learn my area and get to know the members of the ward a little better. It actually was super good for me to have to teach a lesson basically by myself and gain the confidence that i needed to be able help her and the people in our area. But hermana Vazquez is so great and we finally figured out what she needed to make her better (just allergy medicine :) and now she's working full force, bouncing with energy! I just love her!

So also we are slowly finding people to teach that are willing to progress and put their faith in Jesus Christ. One of the pics is with them. We started teaching a member who gave us a reference of her brother in law. Well we finally taught him this week and man it was probably the most perfect lesson ever! He is already so prepared and has his system of support through his brother and sister in law. He came to church with her this week too and we had only taught him once!!!! That basically never happens here and we can really see his desire to learn so we are super excited to help him learn more!

Also we got our new mission president this week! We've only talked to him and his wife once, but they already seem amazing. They were called by God so i am sure they are incredible. But we also had the goodbye of President and Hermana Gomez on Monday. We did a little Q&A thing and one thing that i loved that Hna Gomez said when she was asked what great miracle she had seen on her mission was waking up Monday morning and realizing her husband wasnt laying next to her...and then realizing he was sitting by the window in tears. That was the greatest miracle. 

There are so many miracles that happen in the mission, but they all seem to come and center around one thing...around our Savior Jesus Christ. I read a scripture this morning in Mosiah 15:7 that talks about how Christ submitted His will completely to the Father. That is what we have to do to become like Him. "We can make of ourselves just an ordinary man. He can make a God." I invite you all to let His will become your will, to give all your wishes and desires to Him...and its incredible how much happier we can be!

Love you all! Have an amazing week and keep smiling brightly!!

Love 

Hermana Briggs