Sister Brittany Ann Wilkins: November 2013

Good Morning!

Man am I EXHAUSTED!!! I don't think I've been this tired my entire mission! :) This week has drained me a bit ..but don't you worry I will be enduring to the end! :) Well I don't even know where to start this e-mail. How about Monday night?! Holy wow! It was amazing! like I hinted last e-mail I had the opportunity to have dinner with Elder Call of the Area 70 and his wife! It was AWESOME!!! the spirit in their house was amazing and it was just so cool. We were all freaking out inside and listening intently on what they had to say. Elder Call has spent a lot of time personally with the apostles, and it was so fun to hear him talk about them! They're actually all really funny! See! I knew God had a sense of humor! :) He also talked about the power that they have, I don't think we really know how amazing it is. We don't understand it, but they have God's power! They are special witnesses of Christ! He talked about the picture of Christ ordaining his 12 apostles and he said now put Thomas, Henry and Dieter in for Peter James and John, it's the same! It's true, but I never thought about it like that before. SO cool! :) He also talked about our work and gave us a few tips on how to be better :) He talked about how we were saved for THIS time specifically; we weren't just drawn out of a hat to come down here at this time. But we are here now for a reason, because we were valiant in the Pre-mortal life. It reminded me of something I learned in one of my institute classes where my teacher told us to try to envision ourselves being in the pre-mortal life. and he said if you could just imagine how valiant you were there, you would be more valiant here. I think it's a beautiful thing. And in the scriptures it says we can find all things through the Holy Ghost, even things about before this world was. :) Pretty cool eh? That dinner was a testimony builder for me, the spirit was so strong, we got to share a message and we chose to share about the restoration. To be able to testify to them was so powerful, the spirit filled all of our hearts and we were just crying. I can't explain it, but I just know with every fiber of my being that the church is true, and that Thomas S. Monson and the Apostles are true prophets, seers and revelators of God! Do you realize how amazing that is?! It's like having Moses on the earth!!!! It's a miracle! and It's a reflection of our faith, miracles only cease when our faith ceases to make them happen. :) Anyways, it was awesome :) He also has a sense of humor, we were laughing pretty hard! :) Tuesday was a good day, just the normal going about doing good kind of thing :) haha nothing too exciting happened...until that night. We were at the church for our meeting with our ward mission leader Brother Leavitt, and the Elders in our district had just left and then came back because they felt prompted that Sister Fabis needed a blessing. Sister Chipman and I had to go to our meeting so the soundview sisters went with them. After the meeting we went to go find them and the elders were in a room and as soon as we walked in we could feel the spirit. The Elders told us about the blessing as Fabis was with the soundview sisters in the chapel talking. Then we talked about our favorite scriptures. I of course shared D&C 6:36! "look unto me in every thought, doubt not, fear not." we had so many spiritual experiences this week!! :) Wednesday was my 9 month mark! And I was STRESSED! haha I cried a lot this day! We had zone conference on Friday!!! :) It was awesome! We talked about pretty much the same things we talked about at MLC this month, haha but it was still amazing and a spiritual boost! :) And I got to see Sister Packard! Man do I miss that child SO much! :) I got to talk to her for a little while and it was SO good to be able to talk to her again, she definitely knows how to help motivate me. :) But at zone conference we talked a lot about reaching higher which was perfect to learn on my 9 month mark day! It helped me to have a vision of who I want to become in the next 9 months :) I'm upset because it goes way too fast, Sister Chipman and I were talking about how crazy it is that none of you even know how much we've changed! :) We might look fatter and have longer hair, haha but you can't even understand the change that has been wrought in our Characters. I thought a lot about this on Wednesday. I thought of how big of a saint Sister Hall is because she had to deal with my greenie phase :) haha the beginning of my mission was not easy for me, I was SO self conscious! haha I didn't want to do anything :P I was afraid of every part of missionary work! haha And Oh how patient and loving Sister Hall was and enabled me to change! and it's been like that my whole mission! I have continued to change bit by bit. It's insane. I reflect back on the person I was before my mission and I realize I knew basically nothing about the gospel! haha I have learned about and tried to apply the principles of the gospel to myself and it has made me into a MUCH better person! :) I can't explain it...but anyways It's pretty cool! :) I love how uncomfortable my mission has made me because I've been forced to grow :) Even though I hate being uncomfortable...as Sister Thompson would say "if you're always in the comfort zone then why do you need the comforter?" Aka we must be out of our comfort zones to grow!!! :) So basically President just wanted us to be more out of our comfort zones, and reach higher! :) It was a really good Zone conference, probably one of the best so far in my mission. :) That night we had a little bit too much fun and Sister Chipman made sure that she took pictures of me looking pregnant :-P haha! :) Thursday was good, it was our last day with Sister Fabis so we just worked our tails off. I think that's a big part of why we are so exhausted. The past 2 weeks of my mission have been probably the hardest. It was definitely a refining time for me. It was high stress and low rest :) haha But alas, we will move forward and keep working hard! :) And maybe take a nap today haha :) But enough about all this nonsense! AN APOSTLE CAME TO THE WA-TAC!!!! :D Wanna know who it is? Well we didn't even get to find out until like 10 minutes before he came!!! haha maybe i'll delay this for a while...hehehe jk Ok ok i'll tell you Elder Call of the Area 70, Elder Craig C. Christensen of the presidency of the 70 and Elder Niel L Andersen of the quorum of the 12 apostles came and spoke to us! And what's Even better?! I GOT TO SHAKE THEIR HANDS!!!! :) I almost fainted :) haha And wanna know something else amazing?! I got to sing with 5 other elders and 5 other sisters a beautiful version of "Be still my soul" for them! :) I was standing so close to them :) haha I was actually standing right behind Elder Call and almost hit his head with the music! Woops! :) haha he just laughed at me.. :) But Elder Andersen was turned around watching us the whole time and at the end he had eyes filled with tears. I WISH I COULD EXPLAIN TO YOU EVERY DETAIL OF THIS DAY BECAUSE IT WAS AMAZING!!!!! but i will tell you what I wrote in my study journal when I sat down after singing :) It says... "I just sang "be still my soul" for an apostle! AHHHH!!!!! :) (with 10 other people) I shook his hand and elder Christensen's and elder Call's! I am joyful! I feel SO happy! the spirit has filled my soul I'm about to cry! haha :) I just can't stop smiling..." That pretty much describes the feelings I was having :) I could NOT stop smiling. The spirit filled the room so powerfully and It was just purely amazing. Sister Weaver spoke first, she talked about how beautiful it was that we could stand with confidence at the feet of one of the Lord's servants. And how beautiful of a calling we have as missionaries. Then President spoke! He talked about 3 Nephi 12:10-12 And how even though we are persecuted, we are God's servants and we will be blessed. He quoted the first vision and the spirit filled the room. Then Elder Call spoke and he said pretty much the same things he said when we had dinner with us haha so we got to hear it twice! :) It was awesome :) two things he said that stuck out to me were #1 to put the things we were taught from the spirit into the fabric of our souls and #2 to realize that our mission isn't just significant, but divine. That hit me pretty hard, because I feel like my mission has been one of the most amazing and sacred times of my entire life. Elder Christensen talked a lot about our attitude and how we need to obey what President and Sister Weaver say :) Then Elder Andersen Spoke. And it was way cool because he came down from the stand and was interacting with us! Standing right next to me! :D I gotta tell you this man is hilarious! He just said some of the funniest things :) But he also said some of the most profound things. He talked about the apostles and how Elder Packer calls his end of the seats "the kids" haha! And he told them to enjoy their youth while they have it!!! we were crackin up :) Then he talked about how beautiful our life is, even though we have issues and hard times. But we need to plant firmly in our hearts that Jesus us the Christ. There is no one who gets through this life without difficulty, but the gospel brings assurance and peace. He said "if you will seal in your hearts your testimony of Jesus Christ, you'll see this gospel illuminates itself in a beautiful way. And how we need to put our faith in Christ and he will get us through. He talked a lot about sealing the gospel principles and our testimonies in our hearts and letting them change us. So basically he talked about our character. Then he talked about the Atonement. I can't even explain the spirit in the room when he bore testimony of the atonement and of Christ. He talked about how we would never understand the Atonement until we experienced it. He talked about in PMG it says "as your understanding of the Atonement increases, your desire to share the gospel will increase" He spoke of how we need to gain our own testimony of the things of the gospel, and he told us to never declare things we don't believe. hdjksafhFKJ;SDfhdskjahfkjdhsajkhfkjdshjkfsaHFJHfdsiahfdjkshafjkshdauklytuiewhtjkd hsfjdshjafhdjahfueyhtrjehrjkgdshajfhjdskhaguewayrtuhfdsaufdsal;tretuier!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just wish I could tell you everything about it! haha It was amazing!!! :) He then talked about how our Investigators and how they need to be taught about Repentance. He said "don't you dare baptize someone who has not repented!" I was a little taken back by that! YES Chastisement! :) haha I melted. That's all I have to say. This gospel is amazing. The church is so true. I know with every single fiber of my soul that this church is Jesus Christ's church restored to the earth. I know that we have a prophet today who keeps the doctrines pure and sets a goal for us of worthiness. I know that Joseph Smith saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in that grove of trees in the spring of 1820. I will defend that miracle with my life, because this is salvation. This is living with our family forever. There is NOTHING more important than that. God will always come first. I know He loves us, and I know He is there for us. We are NOT down here running around like little ants with no course or purpose. If people really understood what this gospel was, and what it meant for them, everyone would be fully converted. Everyone. THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!! I Know my Savior lives. He is here, he loves us more than we can understand. He enables us to change through His Atonement (merits, mercy and grace) I can't say anymore than that...It's just true.. :) :) So it was a spiritual week! haha I think that's another reason why we're tired. :) Too many spiritual highs :) haha But anyways this week is Thanksgiving!!! YAY!!! :) I am pumped! We are going to be eating like 4 dinners....i'm going to get fat. it's fine :) haha I'm so grateful for so many things. I am grateful for this church and this gospel. I'm grateful for all of you! for my mission and the things I’ve learned and the friends I’ve made. I'm grateful for SO many things. :) I hope all of you think about what you are grateful for this week and realize that everything we have comes from God. So thank Him first. :) I love you lots and I will see you over Skype in a month :) haha!

Love always!

Sister Wilkins :)

p.s. no baptisms this week... :( pray for this next week! :)