Weeks 9 & 10

Just a reminder on Britt's address.  She is still at

Sister Brittany Ann Wilkins 
135 View Road Appt. A
Steilacoom, WA 98388

Write her lots of letters!! She loves getting them and they brighten her days so much!! Thank you to those of you that have taken the time to write her.  She loves every-single-letter!!!

Week 9

Hello all!!! :) Another long week has gone by and I feel like it's been forever since I’ve talked to all of you! I've only gotten 3 letters this week and they were from sis O’Connor haha which I’m not complaining cuz I just sent out a bunch of letters last Tuesday, it just feels like forever!!! :) This week has been so awesome! I am still LOVING everything about my mission :) I am breaking this e-mail up into sub-categories 

First we will talk about transfer meeting:

TRANSFER MEETING!!!! It was awesome! I got to see my whole district from the MTC and I have missed them so much! The girls and I used to sing every day and now I just have to sing by myself :) haha Sister Hall doesn't like singing with me :P and the elders are such studs!!! I have like 8 little brothers that I just love to death!!! :) It was so good to see them and it reminded me of how much fun I had in the MTC and also the things that I learned!! I loved it!!! I talked to a bunch of the missionaries! It's so fun to get together with everyone! :) We sang "amazing grace" which is my favorite song that we sing! It’s amazingly powerful and spiritual when a whole bunch of missionaries get together and sing!!! Ah! I love it! Starting this month we get to do some firesides!!! YAY! I love it :) this is some of the reason why I got sent to this mission cuz I love to sing!!! :) It was sad to see the missionaries leaving, one of them was an elder in my district Elder Cox! He’s pretty cool, we became pretty good friends :) I always LOVE see president and sister weaver!!! I just love them to death!!! They have such a light in their eyes and they're so loving and supportive! I love it! President came up to me and Sister Hall afterwards and said he had us split up at one time then he put us back together! I told him it was a good thing because I don't know what I would do without Sister Hall! haha so yes I know I am exactly where I need to be! AND I LOVE IT!!! :) Did you know that in July there will only be 6 missionaries out longer than 4 transfers in my mission? AKA next transfer I will most likely be training. PRAY FOR ME! haha :)

Elders In Steilacoom

We now have elders in our area as well!!! :) Elder Torres and Hamblin! Torres has been out about 6 months and Hamblin is a Greenie fresh from the MTC! :) They tract pretty much all day because they are starting from ground Zero! They’re good missionaries though! I know MIRACLES are going to happen in Steilacoom with 2 sets of missionaries! They are bike elders too! I feel so bad for them but we can't give them rides anywhere :P 

Sister Hall 

Sister Hall has become one of my dearest friends! It should be that way when you spend 24/7 with someone for 7 weeks straight!! :) haha but I just love her! She's an amazing missionary and I look up to her so much! She is hilarious too! She told me "the world should know the weird crap that comes out of my mouth" so I'm telling the world! haha we had a lot of fun this week and have grown even closer :) I came up with a list of random questions since I already knew all the basic things about her and it was really fun to get to know her even more! she has some pretty crazy and funny stories! I love it! I have laughed so much this week :) Funny story...about 3 days ago we were tracting on 107th st sw to be exact :) and this guy opens his door and starts yelling at us because he has a no soliciting sign on his door and Sister Hall goes "we're not selling anything" and the man says "you're selling your religion!" and Sister Hall said "no we're not we are inviting" and the man says "well I don't want to be invited that's why I put the sign up" and Sister Hall says "well maybe next time if there's a no inviting sign we won't come!" and the man slammed his door! My heart dropped at first at her boldness haha but then I laughed for like 10 minutes straight. I thought it was pretty clever! But yes I LOVE Sister Hall! She knows exactly what I need to be a better missionary! It great!!! :)

J.

J. is one of our investigators! He's in his 60's! How we met him was pretty cool, I think I already told you about it but I’ll tell you again :) We were driving to a potentials house and all the sudden Sister Hall stops the car and this guy (J.) literally walks towards our car! So we roll down the window and start talking to him. We find that he has just gotten a divorce and has a lot of sorrow and hard times in his life! So we got his information and started teaching him! Well J. got addicted to drugs when he was 12, he stopped in his early 20's but he also got addicted to smoking and drinking. He also drinks coffee. Man, if there is one thing that's hard to let go of its addictions. But! J. is so great and he knows that this is where he needs to be! So he committed to stop :) So Saturday night we go over to his house and watch his pour ALL of his alcohol down the sink and he got rid of all his "smokes"!!! We were SO proud of him!!! We just called him and he still hasn't drank or smoked but he drank a cup of coffee. But he's doing so good! I can't even believe what I have seen the Atonement of Christ do for people! It changes people's entire lives! And it's so amazing! AH! I love it!!!! :) I'm such a proud missionary :D because he relies on his Heavenly Father to help him get rid of his pain and sorrow! And that's all you can do in this life! He loved the plan of salvation, because it's the "why" of the way we live. We live righteously because we want to receive Celestial glory! :) he loved it! :)

Papa R.

Oh papa R.!!! :) I just love him! :) haha papa R. is 71 and he is a manager of a company that cleans military clothes...or something haha :) but he's pretty busy! I know I’ve told you about him before but he is so great! He still doesn't have a baptismal date but he is progressing towards one, he just wants to make sure he's committed which is very admirable. I know that when R. gets baptized he will be in it for the long haul! Which is the greatest thing you can know as a missionary! :) I just love papa R! :)

M./D.

M. and D. are doing pretty good! :) We went over to their house for dinner on Thursday and M. cooked the biggest roast I’ve ever seen in my life!!! It was sooooo good! He’s such a good cook I love it!!! But he told me that he thinks I was a skater chick in HS! Everyone makes fun of me for it now :P and sister hall thinks I’m like Chukie off Rugrats cuz I’m paranoid :) IT FINE!!!  :) I'm just safe :) haha

I have grown in my love for people even more in the past week! I just LOVE these people! And that's what missionary work is all about, love. Because I love them I can rely on my Heavenly Father to work through me to help them :) And I can know through the spirit what they need :) It's so cool. I love being a missionary!!! :) Like I said this week has been so great! and i can't even wait for next week! :) I'm ready! haha I hope all of you are doing well! :) I love you and pray for you all the time!!! :) Remember "Faith in God includes faith in His timing" that was my motto yesterday :) because we had ZERO investigators come to church yesterday, which made like 6 of them fall off date for baptism. It was lame, but I trust God has a plan for them :) haha I know this gospel is true, I love the Book of Mormon, I love preach my gospel! I think all of you should read it! :) I LOVE YOU!!! and miss you :) 

Love always 

Sister Brittany Ann Wilkins

P.s. I’m gonna be 21 in 2 weeks!!!!!! crazier things have happened....but I think it's pretty crazy...! :) 

Week 10

Well hello again family!! :)

Well this week has been...interesting to say the least! Honestly I don't really remember much about it because I've been on pain pills since Tuesday! :P Yes I hurt my shoulder AGAIN! Playing basketball and working out...Probably dislocated my shoulder blade again! It’s pretty painful but I didn't even have to pay to go to the doctor because my bishop (bishop Mortensen) is the best ever and he is a doctor! :) haha so he checked it out and put me on some tramidol or something like that for the pain and then I take some vikiden at night to sleep :P my stake president is also a surgeon so he checked it out and said to put it in a sling but not all day and ice it and rest it and he's going to check it again in a week :) Prayers sent my way would be nice! :) At first it was really hard for me to want to get up and go out because the medicine makes me tired and I have been in a lot of pain. It was hard to focus on the work and not on myself. But I have an amazing companion who doesn't allow me to be a baby! :) I have been so humbled and grown so much this week! I have been able to do everything I’m supposed to and work through the pain! I have learned how to rely on the Lord more and how to forget myself even when it's extremely hard! Sister Hall pushes me and stretches me to be my best and doesn't let me be a slacker ;) haha I love her so much! She is such an amazing example to me! We have become best friends!!! :D I got a blessing from the Elders last night (Torres and Hamblin) and it was exactly what I needed! I am just truckin along! Doing alright! Don't worry about me though! I'm doing great!!! :) So funny story...last night we went to a potentials house and knocked on the door and her husband whom we haven't met yet answered so we started talking to him and he was being super prideful and saying how he didn't wanna go to church cuz he didn't want to have to dress up and he wasn't willing to do what God wants him to do! so Sister Hall tells him he's being prideful! haha and then we talked to him about church and he was just denying it and such and Sister Hall says ok if you ask your child to do something and he doesn't do it because he doesn't want to you're gonna think he's being a pain in the butt! and then she says "you are being such a pain in the butt child of God right now!!!" hahha! I just busted out laughing! it was hilarious :) We're going back on Friday to teach him the plan of salvation :) hahaha! Oh Sister Hall and her boldness :) I love it! So Sister Hall has a story about everything. I give her any topic and she has a story about it from her life! so i was trying to find something that she didn't have a story about! And the only thing i've found so far was a chimney! so 2 nights ago while sister hall was saying mighty prayer (our companion prayer at the end of the day) or fire place makes a HUGE boom noise! it scared both of us half to death! so now she has a story about a chimney! haha I am so gonna miss her stories when one of us gets transferred :/ IT HAS BEEN SO BRIGHT AND SUNNY!!! I love the sunny days here because every sunny day counts! And it's warm and so nice to be outside! I love it! So this week Janice Kapp Perry came to our ward! she did a fireside on Friday that we got to go to and it was SO good! we all sang a medley of her primary songs and her and her husband spoke and at the end we sang As Sisters in Zion and Army of Heleman together (boys and girls like a medley) IT was SO spiritual! I loved it! Her and her family also wrote a family song! Look it up! It’s adorable and I decided when I get home we are writing a family song!!! :) Sister Hall and I have decided to go on a cave man diet! no dairy or grain! It's gonna be interesting :) I have a health nut of a companion :) she makes me do stuff like this all the time! And she makes me wake up at 6 to watch her work out since I can't do anything cuz of my shoulder! So we go down to the gym at the church and I lay on the stage with my pillow and blanket and she works out with the 2 other girls in our district Sister Langi and Sister Peruch! They’re way fun! It’s awesome to have girls in our district! We didn't have any other girls in our zone last transfer! It was sad! haha but anyways TOMORROW! is going to be amazing! guess why?!! WE'RE GOING TO THE TEMPLE!!! awh yea :) I'm so excited! this is our once a year temple trip! I have missed the temple so much! I'm excited to go!!! We've been talking a ton about temple work in our stake lately and I just wanna go! But I’m doing work for the living :) SO my challenge to all of you is to go and do work for the dead!! go to the temple! At least once a month! And do the work for those in spirit prison just waiting to be baptized and receive and make those eternal covenants with God! What a wonderful way we can build God's kingdom on the earth! and what a wonderful place to be! I promise if you will go to the temple you will have a greater peace in your life than you do now :) A scripture that I read during personal study this week really hit me and I have shared it with all of my investigators this week :) it's 1 Corinthians 10:13! Read it! :) I hope all of you are doing good! I know that life is hard, but God will provide a way for you to get through it. Life is but a small moment and it's meant to be enjoyed! Alma 36:27 (I think that's what it is) Is a really good scripture about trials :) Sometimes in life we go through trials and we don't always get what we want and we get into a funk where we just wanna be unhappy for some strange reason...but then we are humbled and decide that maybe we should turn to God and that's when we can receive blessings! If we are following God's commandments He HAS to bless us! He is bound when we do what He says. (D&C 82:10) and if we do what He says and follow Jesus Christ although we will still go through hard times we will be able to withstand the storms because God will lift us up and shower us with blessings! Yay! :) well this next week is going to be wonderful! Jessica-I hope you had an amazing birthday! I was going to write you a letter this week but it didn't happen..I suck :/ But I’m going to write you an e-mail after this :D Kiersten is getting married on Saturday! Don’t forget! Because you have to send me pictures and give her a HUGE hug from me! :) and tell her I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!! and I'm turning 21! I feel old...haha! I am so excited! I love being a missionary so much! and I am so grateful for how much I have learned and grown! I hope all of you are doing the same and exercising your faith! :) I love you all so very much!!! have a wonderful week and remember you are wonderful children of a loving Heavenly Father! :) Love you!

Love Always

Sister Brittany Ann Wilkins :)

sorry if this is short and jumbled, it's hard to type with my shoulder and I’m on drugs :)