Gooood afternoon!

This week we had a cool lesson with some of our investigators. This family are relatives to some of our other investigators and that’s how we met them. So this week we went over to their house and they are always just super respectful. It’s super cool to see how the family works together. As soon as we come in, all of the kids in the house are just expected to come participate in the lesson, and they do. Their kids are all older teenagers and early 20’s and we can tell that some of them are more interested than others, but it’s really cool to see that they have so much respect for their parents that they will come and participate. Two of the children are always super involved. Their names are Day Mu and Eh Soe. Day Mu is a 21 year old girl and Eh Soe is a 18 year old boy. This week we taught them about the importance of the sabbath day and of coming to church. Day Mu and Eh Soe said they were going to come to church with their mom yesterday, but something happened and only their mom was able to come. But she came with her cousin so that was cool! Hopefully they will start progressing more soon!

Last week I started reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning again. Man I love that book. I’m reading it with a focus on diligence. I think Nephi is such a great example of diligence. He has so much faith and trust in the Lord, that he is always striving to do what’s right. Even when his brothers are giving him a hard time. He does whatever the Lord asks of him and I would say he’s always “anxiously engaged in a good cause”. I’ve really been thinking about how I can apply this more in my missionary work. Nephi always follows the promptings he gets from the spirit. My favorite thing about Nephi is that he never complains. He goes through some really hard stuff. He has to leave his home and go into the wilderness, then go back to get the plates, go back to the wilderness, then go back to his home to get Ishmael’s family, go back to the wilderness, build a boat without having the tools or ever having done it before, travel across the ocean to the promised land, and during all of this, his brothers are super mean to him and complain the whole time, they even try to kill him! And Nephi never complains. He places all of his trust in the Lord and is constantly thanking the Lord for everything. This is something I really want to apply more to my missionary work and to my life. It’s so easy to look at the negative things in our life and complain or murmur, but when we do that, we overlook the things that are good in our lives and the blessings we have been given. God has blessed us with so much, and he knows what’s best for us. I think Nephi was able to put so much trust in the Lord because he knew that he was doing what the Lord wanted him to do. He was trying his hardest to live the commandments and do what’s right. It’s the same for us in our lives. If we are doing our best and trying to do what God wants us to do, we don’t have to worry. We can put our full trust in God and know that no matter what happens, everything will be alright. 

Hope you have a great week! :)

Sister Brooklyn Hermansen

Sorry, I didn’t take pictures this week. 

Mom notes: There was something wrong with email this week and the one I sent Brooklyn didn't go through. It made me sad when I found out she thought I didn't send her an email. I tried re-sending it, but eventually had to copy and paste it as a reply to her general email so she could get it. By the time she received it, she had to leave and didn't get a chance to write back. Huge bummer for me! I'll have to wait till next week to get some questions answered. 

Since Brooklyn didn't send any pictures this time, I thought I'd add a couple. The following is a screenshot of how many times their Christmas caroling in Karen has been viewed, liked and shared. Holy moly! Look at those numbers!!!

The weather man was talking about the warm temperatures for January we've all been having. Minnesota got all the way up to 7! It's one of the coldest areas in the country still. 

Cute P-day picture--with jackets and no heavy coats. Guess that's what happens in Minnesota when your temperatures aren't below zero! hahaha