If you want to know something, ask God.

Wowie this week has been a roller coaster. Ups and downs and loopy loops. Our investigator July, the super awesome one who has had the coolest spiritual experiences and confirmations, got into a ton of anti-Mormon material. So he has taken a huuuuge step back from us. We were able to answer a bunch of his questions over Facebook messenger and every time we did, he was super grateful and understood super well. Then we got wifi for a minute on Wednesday afternoon and July had sent us a message the night before saying he doesn't want to get baptized anymore. We asked him why and he said, "Read Matthew 7:15." 

15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Ouch. He talked to us more about how he feels that the things we taught him are true but he feels like he shouldn't trust his feelings. We tried explaining that God talks to us through the spirit and the spirit talks to us through our feelings, but he was being super short with us. What July failed to notice about the scripture he sent us, is the next verse. Through this verse, we can know how to tell the difference between a false prophet and a prophet of God. 

16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

Also something cool, the day after this conversation with July, an elder in the mission put this on Facebook. You bet we shared it and hope July has seen it!

July's mom is doing pretty good though. She came to church yesterday and asked us to come over and teach her. We were hoping July would be there and be receptive, but when we got there, he was sitting on the couch playing video games. He was super stand-offish to us. I just thought, "Hey no problem. We're going to be teaching his mom sitting on the floor right behind the couch he's on. We can teach him too." So that's what we did haha we had a lesson about Jesus Christ and then talked about the spirit and how we receive answers to our questions. When we went in, we had no idea what we were going to teach because we didn't know what to expect, but Sister Hicks and I both felt the spirit guiding us during the lesson. It was super cool. Sister Hicks was sitting in a spot where she could see the TV July was playing on and she said, every single time we were testifying of something and saying things July needed to hear, without fail his game would stop working. It would either glitch or be loading. Every. Single. Time. It was super cool! We know that was God helping July be able to hear the things he needed to hear. We hope that he will really think about the things he heard and the things he's felt and decide to learn from us again! 

The day that July told us he doesn't want to learn more was super hard. We were actually on exchanges with the Spanish sisters in our zone, so Sister Hicks and I weren't even together to talk about it and stuff. I was feeling super upset that night because we have personally witnessed the spirit touching July's heart so powerfully and now he doesn't want anything to do with it. When I was feeling super crappy I started thinking about Jesus Christ and His atonement. I thought about how when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, he suffered for each of us personally. He felt everything we will ever feel. I know that He knew exactly how I was feeling because of that. I prayed to Heavenly Father and asked Him to help me have peace and comfort about the whole situation. And that's exactly what I got. I had comfort knowing that Jesus Christ knows how I feel and loves me, and I felt peace thinking about July because I know that if he will keep searching, God will help him know the truth again. 

Another super important lesson I learned from this, is that Satan is good at what he does. He knows each of our weaknesses and strengths and can even take our strengths and turn them into weaknesses. July is a super intellectual and logical thinker and because of that, he was trying to do a lot of research on the church and found a lot of good stuff, but then he also found stuff that has been twisted and changed to make our church sound bad. Satan planted doubts in July's mind and now he's confused. But I know that God is the source of all truth. If July, or anyone wants to know if something is true, they have to ask God. We can't go searching on the internet or asking other people. If you wanted help with your math homework, you wouldn't ask your English teacher, would you? We have to ask God. If any of you want to know the truth, I'd encourage you to do just that. Ask God. Then take steps of faith to show God you really want an answer, go to church, read the scriptures, pray every single day, etc. I know God answers prayers. 

I love you all! Have a good week! 

Chicken feet soup round 2. I liked it just about as much as I did the first time. 

And here's a picture from our exchange with the Spanish sisters! Super fun day!

Mom notes: Brooklyn told me Women's Conference was super stressful because they had to find and arrange rides for Karen women if they wanted them to be there. They ended up getting 22 Karen women there! She also said that she didn't have to translate, thank goodness, a girl from the ward did it. 

I asked her a little more about July. She said, "Man I got a little taste of how Heavenly Father feels when his children are so blind to His help. It hurt so bad. I told Sister Hicks, this feels like getting dumped, but worse! We're so sad because we saw July through Heavenly Father's eyes. We saw his potential and the spirit helping him, but now he's letting Satan put doubts in his mind." 

Keep July in your prayers.

"I love that movie"

Hello! Yesterday we had Mission President's Fireside. It's a meeting where converts to the church speak about their experience and share their testimonies. We invited July, and he came and brought his girlfriend! We haven't been able to teach his girlfriend yet, but hopefully we will soon! They both really liked the Fireside and his girlfriend even started crying during one of the talks. One of the speakers was talking about the Joseph Smith movie and July turned to me and said, "I love that movie." This kid just watched the Joseph Smith movie by himself. He's a champ. He still hasn't been able to get work off to come to church, but they're training some new people so hopefully that will change soon! His mom and 3 of his siblings came to church yesterday though! I'm super excited about this family. 

Another cool thing! Remember Sue and Eh Hser? The awesome teenage girls? Eh Hser is the one who couldn't come to church because she volunteers on Sundays. Well she quit her volunteering because she wants to come to church! She was going to ask her boss to switch days, but there's so many other people that want to volunteer she decided to give other people a chance to volunteer as well. She's super cool. :) 

Sorry this email isn't super long, I love you all! Have a good week!

Our zone at zone conference! 6 Karen speakers, 6 Hmong speakers, 6 Spanish speakers, and the Hurleys! 

My mom and sister sent this "one year" banner in my birthday package. Apparently they forgot I was turning 20 :/

Just to clarify, we did not forget it was her birthday, we were just way more excited about her hitting her year mark! hahaha

Mom notes: The emails were pretty short this week. The only extra I have to add is that Brooklyn mentioned it's already getting pretty cold. In the 50's and 60's. Everyone in Minnesota says this winter is going to be bad....but that's what they said last winter too! 

She sent this "sad face" picture of how she felt about getting a flu shot at zone conference. haha 

One extra companionship photo of Brooklyn and Sister Hicks

"...so when can I get baptized?"

This week we saw July twice! The first time we taught him about the Plan of Salvation. This kid understood the Plan of Salvation better than anyone I've ever taught! We would start talking and he'd practically finish our sentences and teach us the rest!! It was amazing! He kept telling us that this is exactly what he wanted to learn. He said he's been praying to God asking questions and the Plan of Salvation answered so many of his questions! July is so prepared for the Gospel. At the end of the lesson we asked him what he feels like his next step in God's plan for him is and he said, "Baptism. I need to get baptized." We were speechless for a few seconds then he said, "....so when can I do that?" Hahaha we let him pick a date to have as his goal, and he chose October 8th. Something really cool is that 12 years ago I was baptized on October 8th! However, when we went back the second time, we taught his mom the Plan of Salvation and he did awesome helping us teach it to her! But then he told her that he wants to get baptized next month and she was really surprised and told him he's not ready yet.... but she thinks the Plan of Salvation is true too and we think as we teach her more and as July makes changes in his life that she can see, she will let him be baptized! We have a lot of hope for this family!

Well other than that, we have a lot of really awesome people we have started working with! God is blessing us so much here in St Paul!! I love you all! 

If you haven't noticed my recent activity on Facebook, our mission recently was approved the use Facebook to help more of God's children learn about the Gospel! If you're not friends with me, shoot me a request @ Brooklyn Hermansen! If you ever have any questions about anything I talk about in my emails, the gospel, or about Jesus Christ please send me an email or a message on Facebook! I would love to answer any questions you have!!

All of the missionaries with our investigator, Wah Tho. Such a cool lady!! 

(The couple are the Hurley's, senior missionaries and the little boy is a random photo bomber that Brooklyn didn't know! haha)

Martyr's Day

 

With Wah Tho

Happy girls! We found out Brooklyn's release date will be April 4th, about a month later than we expected, but she wishes she could stay even longer! haha 

I received a lovely card from Brooklyn on my birthday this past week. Besides the message she wrote in English, there was another paragraph at the top written in Karen. I had to wait until Pday to ask her what it said. She said, "It's not as cool when you know what it says, direct translation: Mom, I miss you so much. I love you so much. I say thanks to God for you. I say thanks to you for the help you give me in my life. I love you so much, Star Life Flower" 

It's amazing to me that those symbols actually say something, haha! It's also amazing what they can accomplish while serving a mission. It's such a short time to learn a new language so different from ours. They are obviously being blessed! 

One for the books!!

Wow! Words cannot express the week that we've had! The past couple of weeks Sister Hicks and I have been focusing on being more obedient, and we are definitely seeing the blessings! We had so many awesome experiences and found so many cool people this week. (Brooklyn showed us a screenshot of their goals on a chalkboard. They were hoping for 12 and ended up getting 28 new investigators! In the past they have gotten maybe 3 new ones a month. Whatever they are doing, it's working well! I'm so happy that they both work so well together, are being obedient and keeping busy. We also found out that Brooklyn and Sister Hicks have been assigned to be Sister Training leaders over their zone and the St. Paul zone. I had to ask my husband what that meant. They are basically Sister Zone Leaders. They will have new responsibilities including training at the next tri zone conference.)
I want to start out by thanking everyone for the birthday wishes! Thank you to everyone who sent me an email, card or package! It was my best birthday yet. 20 feels great! (She told me her birthday was so good! They had interviews with President Barney and then it was a normal teaching day but with better food! She said it was so cool to be able to teach people and think about others on her birthday.)

Last night we had the coolest experience. It was the most spiritual experience I've had on my mission. So last week the elders brought us teaching with them to a family and we taught the mom a lesson about the Restoration and everything, super cool lady. However, her children were just sitting around playing video games and what not. Last night Sister Hicks and I went back and taught the mom, Mu Chi about the Book of Mormon. The lesson was going pretty well, and then right before we were about to kind of wrap up the lesson and leave, her 19 year old son came home and sat down by us. His name is July. We started talking to him by saying, "we just told your mom about this book," and then we kind of taught the whole Restoration and Joseph Smith's experience. The spirit was so strong. I felt like words were just coming out of my mouth without any effort. In the middle of the lesson, we were testifying about Joseph Smith's experience and July was just looking down. Then he looked up at us and just started weeping. He was crying so much and he said, "I don't know what I'm feeling. I'm so happy right now." We told him that feeling was the spirit telling him that what we said was true and he told us, "I know this is true. I know it." This 19 year old boy felt the spirit so strong, he started crying as he felt that witness from the Holy Ghost that Jesus Christ's true church has been restored to the earth again. I wish I had the words to describe the spirit that was in that room. That was the strongest I've ever felt the spirit in my life. July is going to do great things! I can't wait to go back and teach him more on Friday!

We had another super crazy experience that gave us a little reality check. haha So for the past month there has been a guy at our recent convert, Karen Moo's house, almost every time we have gone over. Something has happened every time though that has made it so we haven't been able to teach him. We invited him to church though, and he has come the past 4 Sundays! Without ever being taught!! Yesterday we were at one of our member's houses, not Karen Moo's, and this guy, Pa Kee walks in. We were super shocked to see him but we said hi and asked what he was doing there and he told us he lives there now! What?!? At that moment I just thought, "Okay Heavenly Father, we will try harder to teach him. We get it now." Hahahaha It was the weirdest moment. We have no idea how he knows them and is now living with them. It's so cool to see how Heavenly Father just puts people in our path to teach!

I love this gospel so much! I'm so grateful for the knowledge I have of the restoration of the gospel. I don't know what I'd do without it!!

Love you all!

Here she is wearing the dress we sent her for her birthday. So glad it fit! Brooklyn said she had Oreo's for breakfast, ice cream for lunch, Zupa's for dinner, and a mini bundt cake for dessert!!! 
I'm a little jealous! haha

State Fair with some investigators! 

The Minnesota State fair is the largest attended fair in the country. They get something like 200,000 visitors every day!!! 
I told Brooklyn that I didn't know how she remembered all their investigators unusual names. She said they do fine as long as they write them down. 
Brian made a comment about how similar their investigators look with their dark hair. Brooklyn said they always think she and Sister Hicks are twins or sisters!

 

Elder's Evans (from Eureka, Utah) and Foutz (from Mapleton, Utah) tried to bring Brooklyn a blizzard early in the morning on her birthday. For some reason Brooklyn's phone wasn't working. The poor elders waited for quite some time for them to answer, but ended up going home and putting it in their freezer. Looks like she ended up getting it later. It's the thought that counts, right? Brooklyn told me that they are some of the best people she's ever met! She has so much respect for the Elders she works with. 

View of Minneapolis in the distance from the Ferris Wheel

We got some exciting news this week. Brooklyn is now allowed to use Facebook on her mission! She updated her profile picture with the one below and has started posting about her testimony. Using technology and social media is such a great way to reach out to investigators and stay in touch with them. We truly live in miraculous times!