"Wanna know who my best friend is?" November 7, 2016

Goooooood Afternoon!

The beginning of this week was really hard. We've been working super hard but haven't had much success in finding new people to teach, or been able to get back in with our investigators. I had been feeling really inadequate and started feeling a little bit homesick. One morning before my personal study hour I knelt down and told Heavenly Father how I was feeling and asked for help. I told him that I was going to open to a random page in the scriptures to look for answers to my questions. I opened up to section 99 and 100 of the Doctrine and Covenants and it was exactly what I needed. In Preach My Gospel, one of the recommendations is to read some scriptures with your name in them. So that's what I did. I changed the scriptures to show you how I read them.

Doctrine and Covenants 99:1-2 

1 Behold, thus saith the Lord unto my servant Brooklyn Hermansen—thou art called to go into the mid-west from house to house, from village to village, and from city to city, to proclaim mine everlasting gospel unto the inhabitants thereof, in the midst of persecution and wickedness.
2 And who receiveth you receiveth me; and you shall have power to declare my word in the demonstration of my Holy Spirit.

Doctrine and Covenants 100:1-6 

1 Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you, my friend Brooklyn, your family is well; they are in mine hands,and I will do with them as seemeth me good; for in me there is all power.
 2 Therefore, follow me, and listen to the counsel which I shall give unto you.
 3 Behold, and lo, I have much people in this place, in the regions round about; and an effectual door shall be opened in the regions round about in this mid-western land.
 4 Therefore, I, the Lord, have suffered you to come unto this place; for thus it was expedient in me for the salvation of souls.
 5 Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men;
 6 For it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say.

These verses hit me like a brick wall and completely changed my attitude and the rest of the week. God is so good and wants to help us and give us answers to our questions, we just have to ask. He can't give us answers if we never ask. God really is our loving Heavenly Father and I have felt of His love for me so strong this week. I know that I was called by God to Minnesota and there are people out there being prepared to receive the Gospel, I just have to keep having faith in that and working hard to find them!

Last Saturday a little boy in our ward got baptized so we went by his house to give him a little picture of Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist and a card. We talked to him for a minute and he was such a goofy kid. The conversation was all over the place! Randomly he goes, "Wanna know who my best friend is? The Holy Ghost!" as he held up his arm like he was putting it around someone and nodded his head with a little smirk on his face. We started laughing and told him that was awesome and he said, "And he can even help me with my reading!" Hahahaha it was super cute. I love seeing children who love the Gospel and beam with the Light of Christ.

There's a lady in our ward who has a lot of serious health problems, and it's just her and her 16 year old son. This past week she got pneumonia and blood clots and had to be hospitalized. It got so serious that they called her other two children who she hadn't seen or talked to in a few years, to come say goodbye to her just in case. We went and visited her at the hospital and talked to her for a while. By the end all three of us were just crying. She has had such a hard life but is still so faithful. On the way home from the hospital I was feeling really upset thinking about her and wondering why she has had to go through so much. I looked outside the window and saw the most beautiful sunset full of super pretty pink clouds and different colors. I got an overwhelming feeling of peace. I know that was Heavenly Father comforting me. Life is hard. Everyone has challenges and trials and we can't avoid that, but I know that through them we can grow closer to our Heavenly Father and be comforted because of Jesus Christ's Atonement. That's the amazing thing about the Atonement. Not only did Christ die so that we can repent of our sins and live with Him and Heavenly Father again, he also suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane and felt everything that each of us will ever go through. He has personally experienced everything that everyone will ever feel. It's through His Atonement that we can be comforted in hard times and have the strength to endure them. I'm so thankful for Christ and the sacrifice He made for me, and for you. Oh, by the way, she is out of the hospital now and improving. Very slowly, but surely! We visit her quite often to make sure she's doing well!

Small miracle from last week, in the first week I was here, we tracted into a guy named Joseph and shared a message with him and gave him a Book of Mormon. Through out the last couple of weeks we have tried to catch him home again but he's always at work. So yesterday we ended up near his house which wasn't planned and I felt like we should go try to see him. We knocked and another guy that lives there opened the door and let us right in. He said Joseph was upstairs but he would get him. We went and sat in the living room where some of their friends were. It was a really nice guy named Ben, his wife Becky, and their two kids. We made some small talk with them for a while until Joseph came down. We asked Joseph if he had read anything from the Book or Mormon and he told us he has actually read a good chunk of it since we gave it to him! That lead to us teaching the whole Restoration to him and his friends. Ben was very involved in the conversation and had some really good insights and questions! It went super well and we're hoping we will get to teach all of them more! Joseph said he wants to read at least half of the Book or Mormon before we meet again though. We're going to give him a couple of weeks then stop by again. I think they have a lot of potential! I'll let you know if anything more happens with them! 

Wow sorry this email ended up so long! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Sister Brooklyn Hermansen

3820 19th Ave NW Apt #101

Rochester MN, 55901

We didn't take many pictures this week, so here's some random ones from the week. 

This is a water tower that looks like corn. I like it a lot hahaha.