I'm soooo sorry for those that follow and want to know how Brittany is doing. We've had a crazy/stressful past several weeks at our house and I fell WAY behind!! I'm so very sorry! So lets play catch up and here are Brittany's last 3 letters! Keep on writing her!!
Week 11
Well it's been another crazy week! and here we are again!
:)
I think its super hilarious that you had fajita's in honor
of me :) I feel special :D haha! but my birthday was SUPER GREAT!!! :) But
we'll get to that :) So on Tuesday we had the opportunity to go to the temple
and do a session. It was AMAZING!!! It was so cool because the whole room was
filled with missionaries! We met at a church near by and sang a song and had a
little opening devotional to help us bring in the spirit. When we walked into the
temple you could feel the most amazing spirit ever! :) After we all got dressed
we met in a chapel in the temple and President and Sister Weaver bore their
testimonies. I was bawling (of course). They are such wonderful people! And
President said lots of things that I really needed to hear! What a wonderful
man he is! I loved being in the temple! I learned so many new things and
received so much personal revelation that I really needed. The temple is truly
a place where you can be so close to God. In the Celestial room it was so
peaceful. The peaceful feelings in that room were more overwhelming than any
other feeling on my mission. I felt home sick for Heaven! And looking out at so
many wonderful missionaries trying their hardest to follow Christ I was truly
inspired :) Afterwards we went back to the chapel and President and Sister
Weaver gave a devotional. Elder Jefferey R Holland came to a Mission President
training meeting here in WA and sat right next to President Weaver! He said a
lot of very wonderful things. Sister Weaver made a comment that she felt like
she was in the room with a true representative on Jesus Christ. And Sister Hall
and I were talking about how that is what we should be striving towards. Being
a true representative, so much that people can feel it when you enter the room.
I have learned a lot about Christ-like attributes this week and I am working so
hard to be better at them! :) I had a really great experience this week. On Monday
J. called us and was drunk and crying because he didn't feel good enough, he
felt like he couldn't be a better person. I have thought a lot about that this
week. We often put ourselves down because we think that we aren't good enough.
That we can't change. WE ARE STUBBORN!!!! On Saturday night we went and visited
another investigator M. She has a lot going on in her life and doesn't
"have time" to make Heavenly Father a priority in her life. All 3 of
us were crying on her doorstep because she knows she needs to give her life to
follow Christ. But humans are stubborn! I learned 2 important lessons
from these experiences,.. #1 was Charity. The pure love of Christ. I felt for
these people! I cried for them! I received a taste of the love that their
Father in Heaven had for them. Because I can see their potential. I know that
they are good enough and that if they made time to make God a priority their
life would be SO much better and they would be worthy to receive eternal life.
It made me think of how much I need to work on myself as well. As humans we
view ourselves as weak, and not good enough. That's because we are weak! And we
aren't good enough! That's what Heavenly Father sent His only begotten Son! To
make it so THROUGH Him we can be made strong, and we can be good enough to
enter into the presence of our Heavenly Father. Man I have learned and grown SO
much this week, it would take days to tell you about it :) But I am doing so
good! :) I love being a missionary!!! On a side note my shoulder is feeling
MUCH better! :) YAY!!! and on another side note I can skype or call on mothers
day! I already have it set up to go to the bishop's at 4pm (MY TIME) and skype
ya'll! :D YAY!!!! I am so excited!!! :) So ya'll better be there when I call or
there will be trouble! ;) I got the shoes!!! Thank you very much! They were
much needed! :) I did not however get the other stuff so I am going to the
mission office after lunch to get it! I'm so excited! Now for my birthday! It
was so good!! It was really weird not to be home but it was a cool humbling
experience. I was thinking all day about how 21 years ago I left my Heavenly
Father to receive a body and do my best to return to him! And man am I trying!
It's crazy to think about how much I've grown in the past year! I still
remember what we did last year on my birthday! :) But I woke up and Sister Hall
wrote me a card and wrote happy birthday on the mirror! She tried so hard to
make it a good day for me! Bless her heart! I love her so much! :) We went to
church and we had Chris and his family there (this is the guy that sister hall
called a pain in the butt child of God. He's getting baptized on the 18th!
haha! ) And everyone was so nice to me! I was showered with love and chocolate
:P haha! Then we had dinner at the Stower's house. They are Samoan I dunno how
to spell it don't judge me. But I had to eat RAW FISH!!! YUCKY!!!! Truthfully
it wasn't that bad but I still gagged a little bit :P we also had chicken and
steak and rice and such :) and the Jolley's from our ward came too and they
made me a cake! I sent mom a picture of it :D It was yummy! The rest of the day
we tracted :D yay...haha! It was fun because Sister Hall has lots of good
stories about EVERYTHING. So it was so fun! We have fun while knocking doors!
:) Over all my birthday was so great!!! It was weird because normally you just
think about yourself all day, but I had the opportunity to serve and love
others. It was AWESOME!!! Then at 7 we went to Bishops house and his wife made
me a rainbow chip cake!!!! Man I felt a little piece of home! I love my rainbow
chip!!! haha and they got me a present! My bishop and his family are probably
my favorite people :) They are so wonderful! :) Mom- I got your pictures and
letter! Thank you! I also got a card from Grandma with some pictures and a
package from aunt Lori with all sorts of goodies in it and a package from Sister
O'Connor! :) It was a really good day :) I have thought a ton about Kiersten
this week and I'm glad you got to go to the reception! I hope you gave her a
great big hug for me! I am sad I missed it, but Steilacoom is where I need to
be! :) Anyways to end this I just wanted to tell you how much I love and miss
you! I am so grateful for your love a support! It means so much that you are
thinking about me and praying for me! I do the same for you! You all mean the
world to me and I couldn't ever think of a better family to have! I LOVE YOU SO
MUCH!!!!! :) Can't wait to talk to you next week! Love you!
Love
Sister Brittany Ann Wilkins
P.s. I'm 21 now...who feels old? ;)
Week 12
Hello! it's been forever since I’ve talked to all ya'll ;)
haha like a whole day!!!! :P Anywho It was so wonderful to be able to talk to
all of you! I miss you dearly and was so happy to see your bright smiley
faces!!! :) It made my whole day! I'm sorry you couldn't hear me very well :/
But it was still fun to see all of you :) I told you about our miracle
yesterday with our fast and find :) We decided our investigators were being
punks so we went finding until we found an elect and we found S.! Who has read
the BOM and believes it's true! So that was pretty cool! I also told you I went
on a split with Sister Olson from Arizona. She is a greenie so I was able to
take charge, It helped me a lot because I didn't have Sister Hall to fall back
on! :) haha! I am glad you got to meet Sister Hall!!! :) I just love her to death!
I gave her a mothers day card too since she's my "mom" :) haha it was
pretty epic! This week wasn't too eventful...on Thursday we went over to
Anderson Island as always and I worked on my penguin :) (almost done!) and we
also started teaching an investigator! Her name is also S.! She's pretty open
minded :) So it was a good lesson. She will most likely be baptized. Then we
went to catch the ferry and realized Sister Hall had forgotten the car keys!
woops! So we found them back at S’s house but missed the ferry! :/ but Sister Weinrick
took us down to the marina for an hour and we played on the beach and I found
some clam shells and I also found a dead crab! I named it Alfred. I have
pictures that I will send! :) Other than that we've just been doing finding and
visiting people! It's been pretty uneventful. But there are miracles in every
day! I have learned a lot about the tender mercies of the Lord! Mom I think
you're right about the Lord knowing I need Sister Hall! haha I needed someone who
was weird, fun, bold, loving and everything she is! I can't even tell you how
grateful I am for her and her example! She's a lot of the reason why I have
learned and grown so much! She makes sure we're always working hard! We hold
each other to high expectations and it's good because we are always expecting
each other to grow! She says that all of you are "so cute!" hahaha!
Oh you guys should put the pictures I send you on my blog :D I'm not sure if
you're putting them on FB but you should put them on the blog too! :) I just
can't even explain how much I have loved being a missionary!!! It’s literally
the best thing in the whole world!!! and I wouldn't trade anything for this
time in my life. I have only been out 2 & 1/2 months and I feel like I've
changed so much!!!! CRAZY!!! :) I hope you all know how much I love you! It
makes me happy to hear everything that's going on back home! It was really
weird to see the house...haha I feel like I was there just yesterday except
Kyson looks bigger!!! haha fun stuff. This week I learned about Humility. In
the words of Sister Hall "Humility is the art of giving the glory to God
and not yourself" she's definitely an english major,,,haha! but it's true!
In order for us to be humble we have to realize that without God we are
nothing. Yesterday we met this guy who had been through many wars and it
affected his life negatively. He was crying so hard because he believes that there
is no God. He was also drunk but, the gospel of Christ gives us the chance to
receive blessings and be happy! We need to know that because we are nothing
Christ suffered for our weaknesses so that we wouldn't have to feel like
nothing :) It's a hard balance. But humility is so important! Oh also I have
learned how important it is to make God a priority in your life. I see people
who are struggling and they don't understand why. But I can see that if they
would just make God a priority their life would be so much easier! If we are
able to see our lives through God's eyes, that's when we will be most
successful. Well I'm on a time crunch because we are doing firesides in the
mission and they want me to sing a part so I’ve gotta go to the church! I hope
all of you have an amazingly wonderful week! I love you all so much!!! :)
Love
Sister Wilkins :)
Side Note: We are working on getting more pictures onto Britt's blog. She sends us hard copies so we need to scan them in, but we're hoping to get some more on here soon!
Week 13
Well Family another week has gone by, and here I am! :) I
bet Mondays are your favorite days now! ;) Most people hate Mondays but they're
your favorite now huh? :) Well I feel like it's been forever since I talked to
you...but it was such a wonderful booster! :) I have lots of pictures to send
you all but I never got around to writing any letters... woops :) so I will
send them this week sometime :) also I am in a letter drought and it's kind of
sad...haha! I think the last letter I got was on Tuesday :P but it's all good
because it's been a busy week! We've been working so hard! Last Monday I told
you about how I was going to a fireside practice right? well I did and I got
assigned to sing alto in a group. There’s 2 alto's 3 soprano's 3 bass and 2
tenors. and we sang "Jesus, Savior Pilot Me" it's awesome but we'll
get back to that later :) but after the practice we went to Menchies this
frozen yogurt place that's so much like the ones we used to go to all the time!
It was SO good! It was funny because there was like 50-60 missionaries in this
tiny yogurt place and sister weaver paid for us all! Man this is the life ;)
haha! It was way fun! I LOVE getting together with all the missionaries! It's
so much fun! :) On Tuesday we taught this guy named L., we found him last Sunday
and he invited us to come back. So we taught him about the restoration, and the
spirit was SO strong! And we put him on date for the 25th! It was cool because
we asked him to say the prayer at the end and he said it in Micronesian (that's
where he's from) it's funny because this ward is PERFECT for him! We have so
many islanders! haha :) One of the highlights of my week was Wednesday.
Remember Papa R.? Well we taught him on Friday last week and he had all sorts
of deep doctrine questions and was in such turmoil. So the guy we had to
fellowship with us suggested a priesthood blessing. So R. comes to the church
and Brother Bishop (the fellowship) and Brother Gamez (the 2nd counselor in the
bishopric) gave him a blessing. Brother Gamez did the blessing and it was
amazing!!! He’d just barely met R. like 5 minutes prior and he touched on every
aspect of his life that he was struggling with! The spirit was so strong! After
the blessing sister Hall asked him what questions he had and he said
"nothing, I’m ready" HE KNOWS IT"S TRUE!!!!! ahahahahhahahahah
sister hall and I burst into tears of joy! (we're girls don't judge us, and we
LOVE papa R. :D ) man, that was a great moment! To see him realize that this
church is true. AH!!! I LOVE it!! :) That’s one of the greatest things to see
as a missionary! :) He's getting baptized next Sunday!!!!! (26th) :D yay! :)
That was a great day :) On Thursday it was park day! :P *bleh* so we walked
down to the ferry in the morning and went over to Anderson Island! We taught J.
and S.! I dunno if I told you about her but J. is the ex-member coming back and
S. is our new investigator on AI :) they were way awesome lessons! That night
we went tracting and we walked from Lakewood to the other side of Steilacoom
for a lesson! Man! I'm losing weight! woo!! :) It was fun :D Oh man....Transfer
call this Saturday! Keep me in your prayers :D haha It's always super
nerve-wracking cuz it the unknown!!! you know how much I hate surprises! but
sister hall and I during comp inventory on Friday just cried our little eyes
out because we've grown to love each other so much!!! (but i cry every comp
inventory, it's genetic, don't judge me :) I just have so much love for sister
hall!) :D that night during tracting we knocked on 6 doors in 2 hours!! crazy!
haha we talked to this one lady named J. for about an hour! We taught her the
restoration. haha! Then we talked to 2 other people for way long periods of
time but hey we got 2 new investigators!!! I thought that was pretty crazy :)
oh on Saturday the B’s (less actives in our ward) took us to 5 guys! YUM! :)
So back to my singing thing :) On Sunday night Sister Hall got to come
with me up to Bremerton so I could sing in my little group! It was so amazing!
ok so first of all there were about 100 missionaries and about 500 people! So
we sang as follows
1. Called to Serve (all missionaries)
2. Battle Hymn of the Republic (all missionaries)
3. Jesus Savior Pilot Me (just my group)
4. His Son / I Stand All Amazed (all missionaries)
5. Amazing Grace (all missionaries)
There was also a group of 8 sisters that sang I feel my
saviors love and 8 elders sang more holiness give me. There were also
missionaries and recent converts and president and sister weaver who bore their
testimony!!! and man! it was amazing!!!! :) The spirit was amazing! I’m pretty
sure all 500 of the people in the chapel were crying and all 100 missionaries
too! :) hahaha! It was so wonderful! the spiritual pump up I needed!!! :) I was
afraid to sing the alto part with 1 other girl but it went good! :) haha and
they recorded it! so it might be on the blog soon :)I know there will be
pictures of all of us! :) so yes this week was amazing!!! :) Now I wanna talk
about making God a priority in your life. I might have talked about this before
but I will talk about it again :) haha I see so many people put here that won't
accept the gospel because they're either too lazy or too busy. It's so
frustrating because as a missionary I know that if they would make God a
priority their lives would be so much easier!! :) Then I thought about how I
make God a priority in my life. From God's perspective, am I making excuses to
not read my scriptures for 10 minutes a day? Am I saying my prayers sincerely
or just rushing through them because I want to go to sleep? What am I putting
above God? When we put God first He will take care of us. But so often as
humans we are too lazy to pray or too busy to STUDY our scriptures (p.s. that
BOM made easier is genius!!! I LOVE IT!) So I made a goal to make sure I have
enough faith to hand over the life that I’m living and let Him mold me into all
that I’m supposed to be. and of course we will never be perfect at it. But when
we try it is good enough. There is nothing more important in this life than
becoming Christ-like so that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father.
That's what this life is for anyways! :) So for 10 minutes a day, study your
scriptures, ponder them and search them. Say prayers that are sincere. And
remember to make God a priority! :) I know that Jesus Christ lives. That He
suffered for my weaknesses and mistakes and pains and trials so that through
Him I could be made perfect. I want to strive every day to be a "celestial
being" when we have the Holy Ghost with us we will not desire to do wrong.
Remember you have the gift of the Holy Ghost to guide you always but it will
only be there if you receive it. I have learned so much about families and the
eternities and all I gotta say is we better all be there! :) Ya that could be a
threat ;) haha anyways, I have to put something about Sister Hall in here! Cuz
I just love her!!! :) I think she's the best missionary ever in the WA-TAC! :)
and the best companion ever! :) God knew I needed her badly :) haha I look up
to her A TON. She has helped me become a much better person and a much better
missionary! :) I just have to tell you these things cuz she gets sick of me
telling them to her ;) haha! Anyways I love you SO MUCH!!!! and I hope you have
the most amazing week ever! :) Keep your head up and make God a priority and He
will carry you through your trials! :) I have a testimony of this gospel and
church. It's true and the fullness is here today to help us return to our
Heavenly Father. I pray that I may always remember that. I know God lives, that
Jesus Christ is my Savior. I love them so much and I love yooouuuuu!!!!!!!!!
:)
Love Always
Sister Brittany Ann Wilkins :D <3
