Week 10- Easter in Paraguay!

Happy Belated Easter! How are you all doing? Things are exciting here as usual. I bet you probably were wondering since the last email where they sent your daughter to serve for 16 more months. Haha. It is okay! Everyday is a brand new adventure.

In Paraguay they celebrate the entire week of Easter- Semana Santa- and they visit family and the Catholic church has huge gatherings and they eat lots and lots of Chipa and Sopa (the ethnic bread here). We had two great lessons- one with Ismael and one with Maria Celsa and we set fechas (dates) with them for baptism but none of our investigators came to church =/ so all of their dates fell through. They have to go to church three times to show their commitment to becoming a member and none of them have accomplished that yet. Hopefully this week will bring some new investigators and more commitment.

I am loving the people I work with- Hermana Astle and I get along great. The ward members are muy chulina and very loving towards us. I cannot always understand what they are saying but my companion helps me out when needed. I love my mission President and his wife, Hermana Madariaga, both of whom are from Argentina. They are very inspired. Between them and my MTC instructor, Hermana Ortega, I think Argentinians are becoming some of my new favorite people.

Some funny things:

- We went to a member's house and she wanted to see how tall I was in meters. I didn't know that she had pulled out her tape measure and measured me! Haha. Yes they do think I am a giant here.

- All of the women greet each other with a kiss on both cheeks. So even if I have just met them, I am kissing both of their cheeks. It was kind of weird at first but now I am getting use to it.

- No one can pronounce Brittner. I pronounce it like 'Breetner' rolling the R and they still look at me like it's way too hard. They just don't have names like that here. Only the brave try to pronounce it.

- All the hamburgers here have sunny side up eggs and ham on them. It's pretty good!

-We ate French Toast with Fmia. Flores and they loved it. French toast doesn't exist here and I guess the last hermanas who made it with them messed it up but we made it perfect. They don't have syrup so we used jam.

- Fact: about half of our investigators can't read. Many have not finished high school. So when it comes to reading the scriptures, we have to have a family member read to them. So there's something we Americans take for granted.

I haven't been feeling very well for the past couple of days. There is some kind of bug going around so if you could keep me in your prayers for salud (health) I would really appreciate it.

I'm not sure if I adequately thanked everyone for the birthday packages and wishes! I appreciate it so much! It was truly a birthday to remember.

Since it was Easter, I would like to close by sharing my testimony of Jesus Christ. I know that He lives! He is my Savior and my Redeemer and the Savior of everyone in the world. Because of Him, I can live with my family and God again after this life. “Oh sweet the joy this sentence gives! I know that my Redeemer lives.” It is because of my love for Him that I am on this mission, to help others know of the great happiness that the Gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints brings. It is the only true Church on the earth today. I am so grateful to have it in my life. I am so happy to be here in Paraguay and be able to talk about it with people every single day! What could be more important? Put Christ in the center of your life and everything else will fall into place.

I love you all!!

Hermana Brittner

Week 9- Jamie Arrives in Paraguay!

Hello family and friends!

I am sitting in Paraguay right now and I have made it one week in the mission field! Paraguay has got to be the craziest place in the world. So, the area I am in is called Kokuere, it is just half an hour out of Asuncion. The name of the city means farmland that no one wants anymore. My companion is Hermana Astle, a BYU student who is also a Public Health major. She wanted to be a nurse to start with, just like me. We are a lot alike and I am learning a lot from her. She has been in the mission field 8 months and is totally fluent in Spanish, so that is a good thing. I understand a lot of what people say, especially if it's about church things. I can always understand my trainer. Some people are harder to understand than others. Everyone speaks Spanish here but some people are more comfortable with Guarani.

We are teaching a girl, Rosana, with two kids, and she understands Guarani better than Spanish so it went like this: Me, my comp, Gloria (who interpreted what we said into Guarani), and then Rosana, responding in Guarani. It sounds like Samoan. I can teach lessons and my comp says I´m pretty guapo (hard working or awesome) but I am trying to speak more.The way that it is written is crazy. They replace a lot of Spanish words with Guarani words so I am learning those ones.

So there is the chuchi part (rich or fancy) part of my area and the POOR part. And when I say poor, I mean, picture the kids on TV with the commercials that say give $1 a day to feed this child and picture poorer. They live in the dirt or mud with a stick or brick house which is the size of my kitchen. They don't even have chairs to give us to sit on or if they do, they are broken. I taught a lady, Romana, who gave me a broken chair to sit on while she sat on a log. Her cute baby was covered in dirt, head to toe, so while we taught her she put her baby in a bucket to give her a bath. Like a bucket you use to wash the car, she was washing her baby in. No soap, nothing. And while we are teaching her, little kittens, chicks and chickens are walking around. People don't really care about or notice germs because they live in huts so it´s like germs don't exist. There is trash all over here in the poor neighborhoods and the chuchi part. I have seen horses, cows, goats, chickens, lots of stray dogs, everything. They have frogs that sound like crying babies. There were some kids fishing in the stream and they caught this eel thing and held it up and took it home to cook it for dinner. They were so excited to have something to eat. At every house we clap. We wait outside the gate for someone to answer. The poor houses don't have doors, maybe a curtain or something. And if you have a doorbell it is considered chuchi. It is really loud here because of motos or cars or collectivos (buses) or loud music so it makes it hard to hear what people are saying sometimes.

There are dispensas or corner stores on every corner where we will sometimes stop and get yogurt (which comes in a bag and you sip it through a straw) or juice (the juice rocks here). We always walk or take the collectivo (bus). People drive but only if you are chuchi. We take the taxi sometimes if we have groceries or something. The ground is cobblestone or mud so it´s quite adventurous. Haha. My shoes work great here. It´s really pretty exciting everyday. We get snaked everyday which means we get hollered at or hit on, "mi hermosa, que linda," yes it's annoying but don't worry Mom I am twice as big as all the men here. And what do you expect? Two rubias (blondes) walking around Paraguay. Everyone here is "Catholic" or so they say. Most don't go to church but everyone believes in God and Jesus and many in the Virgin Mary. There are Evangelists too. People here are very tranquillo or kick back and they will just sit around drinking a tea with ice called ¨terrere.¨ Everyone drinks it here. It was Palm Sunday and EVERYONE went to church. It was packed and everyone was carrying palms around. My apt is better than I thought. I have everything I need and I usually get more food than I can eat (but I eat it anyway haha because you have to because people give you the best they have). Mostly rice and sauce and some meat and a veggie called "mandioca" which is like a potato, oh and bread too. I will be writing you more about Paraguay but now it's story time.

So the first day, my trainer put me in charge of keys. There are three locks to get into our house, one for the hall and two for the door. We get back from a long day, my first day in the field, and I am unlocking the door and I am trying...and I literally break the key in the lock...how this is possible I have no idea. So the elders come over and try to break in but they can't and so we go to the other hermanas house in the next area and they only have one mattress so my comp and I are pretty close for the first night. Haha. Then we walk around looking for a locksmith and we finally find one and then 2 hours later, he breaks in and makes a new key. But that is not all. Saturday night we come home from a a long day and I pull the key out of my bag and two of the keys fly off the ring and one goes behind me and one in front of me. The one in front of me is NOWHERE to be found. We think it fell down the drain. So another night with the hermanas. The next day is Sunday so we go to church in the same clothes from the day before, no shower, nothing. Haha. The locksmith was closed so President Flores, the Branch President, came over and after two hours, broke the lock. We were SO grateful!! I love la familia Flores, they have us over twice a week for lunch and they are so bueno. The members love us here. Hopefully we can use that to involve them more in the work. We had 5 investigators come to church on Sunday which is a record in the past 4 months. My trainer has been in this area for 4 months so she knows everyone and she knows where everything is. We taught Osvaldo, a guy who we talked to on the street and he showed up to church twice. We taught him the first vision and then he committed to baptism! Hopefully it goes through. It´s not always that easy though. We are teaching two women who have to get married before they get baptized. No one gets married here and their boyfriends are not cooperating. So we will see.

I love the people here! They are so humble and so poor. My companion is very hardworking like me so I think we will have some good success here. The branch loves the hermanas and so I am glad to be here. I know that I will never be the same after this experience. I think if you just spent one day seeing what I see everyday it would totally change your perspective of what needs and wants are and how blessed and spoiled we really are in America. And how blessed and spoiled I´ve been my whole life. I know miracles can happen through the Lord. He has already helped me so much, especially with my Spanish. I am grateful.

Te amo,

Hna. Brittner

P.S. Hermana Peel went 7 hrs north to Concepion in a Guarani area with a companion who only speaks Spanish! For this reason I am grateful for Hermana Astle.

Week 8- Last letter from the MTC

"O that I were an angel and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people!" Alma 28:1

Hello everyone!!

So much to say and so little time! First off, today is my 22nd birthday!!! Woohoo! I can't believe it. I am SO happy to be spending my birthday in the MTC! I woke up and my comps had decorated my room with balloons. Then we went to the temple and had breakfast in the cafeteria. Elder Bigelow bought it for me, which was nice of him. My comp Hna. Van Dusen bought me 11 packs of stickers! Haha, she knows how much I love them. This afternoon, we are having a picnic (with chips and salsa thanks to Kelli b =) ) and doing laundry. Tonight my companionship got chosen to do an orientation for all the newbies, where we go into a room and teach an investigator/actor and they all watch. We are pretty excited.

General Conference was AMAZING. Definitely one of the highlights of my MTC experience! General Conference is a series of meetings that take place twice a year where the Prophet and leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints speak about different doctrinal subjects such as faith, service, family and temples. How blessed am I to be sitting in a room with 2000 of the Lord's representatives and all I have to do is listen and be spiritually edified! The Spirit was so strong and the music was amazing. My testimony was strengthened of modern-day revelation and a living Prophet who guides the Church. The Gospel just makes sense to me. It was the perfect send-off for Paraguay.

On Saturday night, the elders watched the Priesthood Session and the sisters got to watch the General Young Women's Meeting broadcast. Whoa that was powerful. I was crying just watching the opening song that the Young Women Choir sang. You have to know that young women have a special place in my heart, because I have four little sisters at home who are or will be young women. I also thought of the girls I taught at EFY and the future daughters that I will someday have. Then I thought of the beauty and purity that exists when these young women follow the commandments of God. It is especially noticeable these days because there is something different about people who live that kind of life.

So I got TRAVEL PLANS! We were jumping up and down when we got them- a lot of people have visa problems but thankfully none of our district did. Our entire district (7) is traveling together minus Elder Bigelow who is going to DC. I am excited and nervous but mostly excited!

Sarah Palmer- I talked to both Pres and Sis Brown and they were so excited to hear that I am your cousin- they said, "You are beautiful just like she is!" And "you have a lot to live up to- your cousin was wonderful- we love her- but we are sure you will do great as well." I thought that was cool- I'm glad that I am your cousin because you have definitely left a legacy.

Becca- CONGRATULATIONS on graduating! I am so proud of you! And also, congrats on filming the show, Extreme Couponing which I hear will air in May. I bet you were so cute and professional- you really made the couponing world look good. I love you. And also, a Meridian TEMPLE??! So excited- it will be great to go when I come visit you and walk my little nephews around.

Glenn- Happy birthday!! Thank you so much for the birthday gifts. I got both packages and I loved them. I sent you a package and you should be getting it soon.

Soul/Jessika! Happy 21st birthday! I love you and miss you already. I can't believe it's been 4 years since our combined party. Write me so I can have your address!!

Much love to everyone. I will write soon with new adventures from Paraguay! Keep those letters coming; they mean so much to me.

Love,

Hermana Brittner

Week 7- Basketball at the MTC

"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation." 2 Nephi 22:2

Ole Familia y Amigos!

Como estan? I can't believe that another week has passed. Time is flying. Next p-day is my b-day (get it? It rhymes.) Well, this week was a good one, as they all are.

First off, I would like to say how crazy it is that they send missionaries- 19-year-old and 21-year-old young adults to preach the most important message of all time- the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is only through God that we are qualified to do his work. As we work hard and do our best, he will make us qualified for the challenges and tests we will face. He will make us qualified for the work. That's how it is with anything in life. How is a young married couple qualified to be parents? How can a new bishop be qualified? They haven't had any kind of previous training. But through putting our trust in the Lord: "I will trust, and not be afraid," we can be required to do whatsoever is asked of us. When we are on the Lord's errand, we are entitled to his help. Our loving Heavenly Father hasn't sent us here to fail and he will never give us a task too large for us to handle. BYU friends, try to remember that in two weeks when you have finals. =) "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of me, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he has commanded." 1 Nephi 3:7

So fast forward 11 days, and I will be flying to Paraguay. We should be receiving travel plans tomorrow. Whoa. To be honest, I can speak Spanish- in present tense and be understood, but if I am trying to conjugate past tense or future, it gets a little jumbled. But like our tutor Hno. Penalillo says being a missionary isn't about speaking Spanish. Spanish is a means to an end- a way for you to accomplish your purpose of inviting others to come unto Christ. So I'm just going to do my best and smile and talk to EVERYONE. Everyone should have the opportunity to know their Savior and if I am the person to be an instrument to bring that to them, whoa. How great shall be my joy.

I can't believe that I was debating whether to go on a mission or not. It is the greatest thing. Seriously, if you are thinking about going, you should just go. I know I sound like one of those missionaries who thinks everyone should go, but if you have had any desire at all, you should go. And if you already went on one, you should be a missionary now and then go on a senior mission. Okay I'm stepping off my soapbox now. =)

What has been new at the MTC? Well in my spare time, I have been schooling the elders at basketball. =) Well, let me tell you how it went: you probably know that I have never played basketball, except when I was 7. And yes, it doesn't make sense because I am 6 feet tall. Anyway, I was shooting and I asked Elder Wilkins to teach me how to shoot. So he did and then challenged me to a game of PIG, thinking it would be easy. I beat him twice and instantly got recognition among the elders. The next day I beat Elder Bigelow. The next day Elder Wilkins proceeded to beat me by shooting three's. Now Elder Anderson is teaching me how to shoot three's. It is very entertaining.

So today I walked out of the temple with my companions and they said to me, "Who will you see today?" Because everyday walking on the MTC campus and back and forth between the temple on Wednesdays, I see friends from BYU. My comps say I know 1 in 10 people. That may or may not be true. Today was no exception. I saw my friends Janet and Tracy from my last ward. So fun! I love it. I also saw my friend Nate Oswald in the cafeteria the other day. Oh and funny story: I was getting soup in the cafeteria and this girl says, “You look familiar? Did you go to BYU? Did you work at the candy counter?" I guess she was a regular who got Swedish fish and chocolate covered raisins, although I didn't recognize her. Maybe I would have if I saw her at the counter. My district says that I talk about EFY, BYU, the candy counter and dating all the time. That may or may not be true.

Our district has gotten increasingly close. They have memorized all my facial expressions and we have memorized all of each other's stories. I feel like they are my brothers and sisters and I love them for it. The elders said I have mellowed out a lot. Like I wasn’t used to being around elders/brothers- wonder why? Ha-ha but I said they have matured a lot as well. We made it a goal to eat lunch and dinner together and pray before eating. This has taught us the Christ-like attribute of patience as we have to wait for everyone to be seated. We are even more like a family because we just eat off of each other's plates if we want to try something and get drinks for each other. I love this! It shows that we are a family. I love it but at times, I feel like I am at the end of an 8 hour road trip sitting with them in the backseat, if you know what I mean. Sharing the MTC experience together, I know that we will have ties that will last a lifetime because we learned so much together and we’re together all day everyday for 8 weeks.

Kelli Brown- Happy 22nd birthday! I hope it is a GREAT one!

Becca and family- Have so much fun in Rexburg at your graduation! I wish I could be there but I know it will be great. Becca I am so proud of you! And so proud of you for getting on the Extreme Couponing Show. That will be awesome.

Katrina- I don't have your new home address so I can't send your letter! Can you send it to me?

I love you all!! Thanks for your love, support and letters! They mean so much to me!

Hermana Brittner

Week 6- Leadership and Responsibility

"Be still and Know that I am God." Psalms 46:10

Hello family and friends!
Another week has passed by and I'm still happy to be a missionary. This week has been a good one. I have come to realize more fully how much Heavenly Father loves each of his children and how he places us in situations where we can learn best and grow. I have always known this but it has become more apparent to me looking back on situations and times in my life when I have grown so much. I know that Heavenly Father places people in our path for a reason- to teach them and grow from them. "Men are that they might have joy." 2 Nephi 2:25. The scripture "be still and know that I am God" in Psalms 46:10 has really been in my heart lately. In the chaos of everyday life, we tend to forget the important things in life- like serving others, in our families and out of our families and loving others and centering our lives on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This scripture reminds me that as I do my best, I can be calm and content with the direction my life is going and know that as long as I do my part, God will place me in situations that I need to be in to help others and to grow myself. It's like there is a storm outside and the refuge is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and if we cling to it, we can have the peace that comes from knowing our Savior intimately. I feel so much closer to Heavenly Father and the Savior as I continue to serve him as a missionary. I think a lot of it has to do with slowing down and contemplating and pondering what Heavenly Father has done for me and taking time to really study my scriptures.

This week has been pretty eventful. I got assigned to be coordinating sister, which is kind of like relief society president. On top of standing up in Sacrament to accept my assignment, I led the music in Sacrament as well. I better get used to it because esp in Latin American countries, if you are a missionary, you are in charge of music in Sacrament and in general. I think I can handle that =) Basically, the assignment of coordinating sister (you don't have callings on your mission because your calling is to be a missionary) is to care for sisters in your zone and make sure all their needs are met and set up exchanges and things of that sort. I am excited! Right now, there are only 6 sisters in our zone, including myself and my two companions. One of the things I am most excited for is I get to take the new missionaries in our zone on a tour of the MTC and give them an orientation! It is going to be very fun. Tonight we are getting a new district of 8 elders (no hermanas =/) and I get to go with Elder Bigelow and Elder Wilkins, the zone leaders, to take them on a tour of the MTC. The zone leaders are pretty hilarious so it's going to be a lot of fun. And it will be fun to lead the new missionaries around- they will all look like deers in the headlights. Another cool opportunity was going to a meeting which Sis. Brown, the MTC president's wife with all the newly called coordinating sisters. You should have seen it- having all of those sisters missionaries in there- all of them very accomplished young ladies- it was powerful to hear their comments and feel of their spirits. We are a force to be reckoned with, if I do say so myself. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Mead

Last week, we got to have an extra companion for the day because this sister's companions had already left on their missions the day before. So it turns out that this sister, Sister Lanae Carmichael, was in my ward at Liberty Square my sophomore year at BYU. I recognized her but I never really talked to her. It was so fun spending the day with her! We talked about everyone we knew at BYU and we have a ton of mutual friends. And we talked about a lot of things about the mission and life in general and it was like a breath of fresh air to talk to someone who had gone through the same experiences as me at BYU and who is now on a mission as well. She left on her mission to Winnipeg Canada the next day. She also went on a 4 month service mission to Nauvoo last summer- singing in the play and giving tours. That is like my dream- maybe I will do it when I get back? She also speaks better Spanish than we do. She came to our Spanish class with us and we expected her to not know what was going on and then she starts speaking. She went on a study abroad for 4 months to Mexico. All in all, it was really fun being her companion for the day.

Christian Tolentino, I just saw our friend, Kyle Grimes and his new wife outside the temple! It was so cool to see him and meet his wife and tell him I'm going on a mission. You need to write me!

We are officially the oldest district in our zone and we will be the leaders and examples of our zone for the next 3 weeks. Our teachers are emphasizing how important it is to be examples- we need to be good examples, regardless, since we are missionaries but also however we act will be how the rest of the zone acts and so if we are not good examples, the teachers will have to deal with it when we leave. Our district has recommitted to speaking more Spanish and have been praying for more diligence and patience to do so. We have been slacking a little bit lately but the fact that in 3 weeks I will be speaking ONLY Spanish is a good motivation for me to learn. I have a feeling that my trainer will be a native speaker so I better learn all I can here to try to make the transition a little smoother. We are expecting to get travel plans next week (!!!) and I am very excited. My departure date is still set for April 11th.

So hopefully you haven't gotten too bored with my MTC emails but if you have, I can assure you that ones from Paraguay will be 1000 times more eventful and filled with adventures. I can't wait. Thank you for all your letters and cards and packages. They mean so much to me. I'm grateful to know so many wonderful people. I hope everyone is doing well and just know that I love you and think of you!

Love,
Hermana Brittner

Week 5- Speaking in Spanish

Ole familia y Amigos!

Como estan? I am doing well. I have been a missionary for 5 weeks now. I feel like I have been here forever but at the same time, I know it will be coming right up when I am leaving for Paraguay. On my way to Paraguay! In 3 weeks! My departure date is set for April 11th. Mom, thank you for telling me about the clearance form. My teacher says they have no problem sending missionaries to Paraguay because no one goes there! So they don't usually have visa problems. And I will be calling you from the airport. Guess what? My birthday is in three weeks and I get to email you on my birthday! I am so excited because it's a P-day so it will be lots of fun- going to the temple, eating in the temple cafeteria (which we did today and we all really liked it) and having a picnic party outside for lunch. I am just really looking forward to it. My comp asked if I was excited to have a birthday in the MTC and I was like "of course!" I never thought I would get that opportunity.

So highlights of the week:

- I gave a talk in Spanish on Sunday. Can you believe it? Every week we all prepare a talk (the whole district- like 35 missionaries) and then they choose two missionaries and don't tell them until Sacrament Mtg. I had a feeling I would be speaking all day so when they called me I wasn't surprised. There are only 5 sisters who are fluent enough in Spanish to do it and one had already spoken. Anyway, it was on baptism. I talked about how beautiful my little sister Jenna looked on the day of her baptism all dressed in white- a symbol of purity, cleansed from sin. It made me happy to think about her and talk about how proud I am of the decision she made.

- So my teacher Hna. Ortega is from Argentina and Argentinian's always say a "shh" sound instead of a "y" sound. For example, llamo, or name is said like "shamo" instead of "yamo." And so now I talk like an Argentinian. I like it. I have heard that Paraguayian's are really LOUD when they speak and they have kind of a different accent. Haha. They say their "ll" in between a "shh" and a "j" sound. I am so excited to sound like a Paraguayian. My teacher also knows my mission president because he is from Argentina and they are family friends. She said that walking into his house was like walking into a temple- that he is a very spiritual man and he loves music. That makes me SO happy. Also, my branch president owns Kneader's, which is a bakery in Utah. If you go to BYU, you know it because they have $5 unlimited french toast which is awesome.

-We got leadership in our district and zone. Elder Labra, the Aussie, is now our district leader and Elder Bigelow and Elder Wilkins are now the leaders of the whole zone. It is so cool to see them accept their new leadership roles and rise to the occasion. We are pretty proud that the zone leaders are from our district. It was quite the event- we all made bets on who it would be- the winner had to get the other person dinner- which consists of taking it from the counter in the cafeteria and giving it to the person. We missionaries have to entertain ourselves.

I am so sorry to hear about Japan. We haven't seen any footage but we have heard it is terrible. We are all praying for them.

I love this Gospel. How grateful I am for the opportunity to share the good news with my brothers and sisters. Everyday the gospel brings peace into my life, even if times are tough. Through prayer and scripture study, I feel closer to my Savior and my Heavenly Father. I am grateful to be a missionary and feel so blessed to have the Gospel in my life.

1 Nephi 15:24-25 "And I said unto them that it was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction. Wherefore, I, Nephi, did exhort them to give heed unto the word of the Lord; yea, I did exhort them with all the energies of my soul, and with all the faculty which I possessed, that they would give heed to the word of God and remember to keep his commandments, always in all things."

I love you family!! I love you all.
Hermana Brittner

Week 4- One Month Old

WEEK4

Hello family and friends!
I have been a missionary for ONE month now! I can't believe it! I am so happy and grateful to have spent one month of my service in the Provo MTC. It is a wonderful place and the Spirit is abundant here. My companions and I have been teaching in Spanish for three weeks now and we have come a long way. We still have a long way to go however. We are trying to do 100% Spanish this week- Spanish 24-7. It is pretty tough but pretty amusing at the same time. The elders in our district have a problem with making up Spanish words, like adding an "idioso" at the end or something. It is pretty hilarious. Can I just tell you that I love my district? We each come from different circumstances, different walks of life, different levels of education but we all have come together with one purpose- to serve the Lord and invite others to come unto Christ. I have been so blessed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ that it is the least I can do to invite others to have the same happiness that I feel.

At the fireside last night, they said something interesting. That "happy" and "hard" can exist in the same sentence, for that is the definition of a mission. No mission is easy but it is always worth it and through serving our best, we can be happy and help others find happiness. I think this applies for life in general. Nephi 2:25 Men are that they might have joy. Even when we have trials in our life, we can still be happy. I know this to be true.

I have heard about the upset with BYU basketball. What a blow. For those of you who don't know, one of the star players, Davies got kicked off this season for disobeying the honor code. I am very proud though, to say that BYU, doesn't back down from the morals it stands for, regardless of how this might negatively affect the rest of the season. There is a standard to be upheld and no one is exempt from it.

Something funny that happened- well first let me tell you that I LOVE Hma. Ortega's class. She is like a shining example to me, she is from Argentina and served in Chile. During her class the tutor, Hmo. Penaillsho came in for a minute and then this missionary comes up behind him and puts him in a headlock! After a second, he looks down and realizes he is putting THE tutor in a headlock and he turns bright red because he thought it was a fellow missionary! (They do look pretty similar.) The funny thing is the missionary he thought he was grabbing was sitting right in front of him, Elder Wilkins and he started apologizing profusely and the entire class was hysterical with laughter. I was dying. We are always laughing and happy in Hma. Ortega's class. We just laugh and tease Hma. Ortega about her English pronunciation (in a loving way) and she does the same for our Spanish. I am so lucky to have her as my teacher.

This week I was studying Pres. Monson's talk, the Divine Gift of Gratitude. It is an excellent talk. In it, he quotes, "Epitctetus, a Greek Philosopher, "He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has." He goes on to say that "the grateful man sees so much in the world to be grateful for, and with him the good outweighs the evil. Love overpowers jealously and light drives darkness out of his life." When we are grateful, we are humble and willing to submit to the will of God. With humility comes charity. Charity and humility is the opposite of pride. Pride is being selfish and only concerned about one's self. Charity and humility and gratitude are looking to serve others and God. See Pride and the Priesthood- Utchdorf's talk- so good. I am working on being more grateful in my life, because I have SO much that the Lord has blessed me with. I know that as we turn to the Lord in prayer and thank Him for the many blessings on a daily basis, we will live in a spirit of Thanksgiving. It is only when we have gratitude in our hearts that we are truly happy. I invite each of you to remember your blessings and thank God for them every night and every morning. I promise you that as you do this, you will have an increase of optimism and love in your life, especially for those around you.

Thank you all for your love and support. I am truly a blessed sister missionary. I am so grateful to have friends in the Gospel. Thank you for all you do for me. I love you all.

Love Always,

Hermana Brittner

Week 3- PROS at Life

Ole Familia y Amigos? March 2, 2011

Como le va? Estoy bien. I am officially a three-week old missionary! I feel like I am ancient here at the MTC. I remember the first day I came in and we met the three-week old sisters and we thought they were so experienced. Haha. Now I know better =) But really, I have been at the MTC for almost a month. I can't believe it. I feel like I have been here for months actually.

Thank you for all your letters and packages. I love getting mail! And hearing how you are doing. Even though I can't send pictures out, I can still receive them so feel free to attach some =)

This week was good. We taught the first lesson again in Spanish. We have "pretend investigators" come in each week and we teach them the lesson. This week we taught three girls from Argentina who were friends of my teacher, Hma. Ortega. We taught them about the Restoration of the Gospel and how much God loves them. Hma. Ortega said that even though they knew the Gospel and are members of the church, that one of the girls was having a really hard time and our lesson lifted her spirits and reminded her of what's important in life. We were so glad to hear that- that even with our Spanish that is improperly conjugated and limited vocabulary, that the Spirit can still reach out and touch someone- that through us as missionaries, we can help people feel the love of God.

It's still weird to me that I am "the missionaries." Like I could be one of those sets of missionaries walking on the street and you honk your horn and wave because it's "the missionaries." It's cool though, I like it. It's just amazing to me that I am a missionary now.

My companions and I have made a compromise on the early morning working out. Instead of getting up at 5:45 five days a week, we only go twice a week. For some reason, they don't rejoice in waking up early to go running as I do =) But I am happy because we still get 50 minutes of gym time everyday as well. Mmmm volleyball and weights.

Our district has been getting closer as we study and help each other learn Spanish and the Gospel. It's five elders, my two companions and myself. One of the elders, Elder Bigelow thinks that I look just like Kirsten Dunst. And he thinks of me as the girl from Spiderman and Captain Torrence from Bring it On. So much so, that in class he asked Hermana Ortega, "Como se dice "bring it on" en Espanol? Meaning how do you say bring it on in Spanish? Because he thinks of me as a cheerleader. Haha. Needless to say, the teacher didn't respond. It's pretty entertaining being in a class with elders all day. But, can I just say how excited I am that we are getting three new sisters in our zone today? Right now the only sisters in our district are my two comps and 2 other sisters and like 30 elders.

On Sunday in Relief Society, Sister Ann M. Dibbs, counselor in the General Young Women's Presidency and our prophet Thomas S. Monson's daughter spoke to us. It was so cool to hear from her. She taught us how to be "PROS" at life. Little sisters and mom, I wish you could have been there.

Here's what she said:

P-pray every day morning and night on your knees and thank God for your blessings and ask for the Spirit to guide you in your life.

R- Read from the Book of Mormon for 5 minutes everyday because there is great power in the Book of Mormon.

O- Be obedient to the commandments of God.

S- Smile always because that is how you share the light and happiness of the Gospel of others.
I am striving to do each of these things everyday. I remember, before I was a missionary =), it's so easy to get distracted and forget to do these simple things. But when we do them, it shows God that we are striving to come closer to Him and through that, we are building our faith. It is worth it and I would challenge each of you to do these four things everyday.

After she talked about this, she talked about what it was like growing up with her father- who is now a prophet on the earth today. It was so interesting. Mom, you would have loved it. It's funny because she kept saying "my dad" and talking about the kind things he would do and the quirky things that make him unique. And it made me think about Grandpa and how much I love him and how grateful I am that I can see him again in heaven and live with him through all eternity. I am so grateful for an example of Christ-like love that I know my Grandpa was. I am so grateful to be his granddaughter.

Although I love the MTC, I know it will be only a short time and my time will be up. Then I will be in Paraguay!! Woohoo! I hear that they eat iguanas and crocodiles =) And that the people LOVE to eat =) And that Latinos are very loving and always willing to listen. They will never turn you away. My teacher said that she would knock on doors and then walk into people's homes without being invited in and they wouldn't care. They are always willing to let you in and listen because doing otherwise is disrespectful. Getting them to come to church is a bit more difficult, however.

Leslie and Dano- Congratulations on getting engaged!!! So happy and excited for you! I was jumping up and down when I got the letter =) I wish I could be there to be your bridesmaid but I know that it will be a beautiful wedding and a beautiful marriage. I love you guys =)

Becca Davidson- Happy Birthday to your cute, fat babies this upcoming week! Take some extra pictures for me and smother them with kisses.

Shout out to BYU Basketball and Jimmer- number 3 in the country!! I can't believe I am missing such a good season. Ahhh...but I know I am in the right place. Oh Jimmer. I hope all of you friends of mine who are at BYU cheer extra loud for me =)

What questions do you have for me? I am not really sure what to talk about in these emails but I hope what I am writing will suffice. I love you all and I am so grateful to have you in my life.

Something that you might appreciate is some missionary humor. There is a myth that whenever you drop a Book of Mormon, your future spouse gets uglier. Haha. So whenever someone in class drops a Book of Mormon, everyone cringes and there is an audible "ooooohh." Haha. My teacher relayed an experience on her mission in Chile when she was carrying 50 Book of Mormons home in a box and she tripped on a crack and dropped all of them. Needless to say, she still isn't married so we can't know if this myth is true. Haha. But I can't imagine that it would be. She is the cutest and funniest sister ever. I just love her. She is from Argentina and she is such a good example to me. She is 24 and in the United States learning English at the BYU English Learning Center.

I love you all and I'm grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary. =) Hope everything is going well. You are in my thoughts and prayers.

Until next week,

Love always and forever,

Te amo,

Hermana Brittner

Week 2- Glad of Heart, His Holy Name Confessing

Letter 2 from the MTC

Hello family and friends!
How are you doing? Family, thank you so much for the package! The shoes fit perfectly and the sweater and belt were exactly what I needed. The shoes are so comfortable- I feel like I am floating on clouds. But I think I will save them for Paraguay based on the look my comp gave me. They are definitely comfortable sister missionary shoes, not the most stylish. Haha =) And the chocolate and letters were perfect. I also got cookies and letters from the candy counter this week and it made me so happy. I miss the counter but I know that serving the Lord is a good alternative to serving candy. Lol.

Thank you for all the love and support I receive from friends and family at home. It means a lot to me and it's so fun hearing from you!

This week was full of one of the things I love the most- music. Last Friday my companions and I couldn't take conjugating another Spanish verb and so we spent an hour singing hymns in Spanish. One of my comps, Hna. Peel is an amazing soprano which works out great since I am an alto and Hna. Van Dusen just follows the soprano. We sang and it was so great. The Spirit was song and all the elders in our district were so calm and really enjoyed it. Saturday night one of the zone leaders asked if we would sing in sacrament because he said that we sound like angels. We agreed and sang "Abide with Me" in Spanish. It was awesome. One of our counselors, who taught Young Ambassadors at BYU for 4 yrs, said it sounded great. I am just happy I still get to sing- even if it isn't with my lovely sister Taylor. =)

On Sunday night, we had a musical fireside and at the end we didn't a little different rendition of Called to Serve. It was breathtaking. We had the piano being played with fanfare and we started out softly and then continued to sing louder. At the end when it says "called to serve our king" on king, all 2000 of the missionaries in the room stood up. It was like singing with the Army of Helaman. Just as there were 2000 stripling warriors in the Book of Mormon, we have also been taught in our youth and we are going forth to all corners of the earth to preach the truth about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I wish you could have been there because there was such a great power and spirit in the room that I can't explain.

I also sang in the MTC choir a song called "Precious Savior, Sweet Reedeemer." It made me think about how throughout my whole life, the Savior has always been there for me. In the hard times and the good times, He has always been by my side to comfort me and help me and I know he will continue to do so throughout my mission. The elders in my district said they did a zoom in on my face (they film it like general conference) haha so I guess I am pretty famous now. Just kidding.

We contacted at the TRC (teaching resource center) where volunteers come in and pretend to be investigators. We did it in Spanish which was scary but fun. Tomorrow and Friday we will be teaching lesson 1 in Spanish. It's scary but it's good. As long as we have the Spirit there we can get our message across even if we don't always use the correct grammar. The Spanish is coming along- it's really easy for me to memorize vocab- it's the verbs that are killing me. You have the conjugate the verb for who is speaking and what tense you are in. A lot different than English. But i love the way Spanish sounds. I am getting more comfortable hearing and speaking it.

My companions are good and the district is fun. We have all grown so much as missionaries. I can't believe it's been 2 weeks. I feel like i have been here for months because of the amount of learning that has taken place and the closeness of relationships that have been formed. I feel like I have inherited 5 little brothers- the elders in my district and it is just a reminder of how different girls are than guys. They are fun, a little immature but loveable. They keep us "hermanas" entertained. I am still glad I have all sisters though =)

So I will confess. I LOVE the MTC. There is no place like it in the whole world and I feel blessed to be able to spend time learning with no distractions and just focus on my relationship with the Savior and Heavenly Father as well as companions and my district. I can't wait for Paraguay though. I can only imagine how many fun adventures and amazing people I will meet. I heard that most sisters get lice at least 2-3 times while they are there. FUN. Haha. But don't cringe mom. I will take the bugs and the dirt because it will be so worth it.

I know that I am where I am supposed to be and when I was walking in the MTC the other day, i thought to myself "there is no place else I would rather be." Because although it's demanding and challenging and tiring, it's still fun and enlightening and great. I've never really been a stranger to hard work and I can tell that that pays off because it's not like this the first time I am really working hard and studying in my life.

Called to know the richness of his blessing-

Sons and daughters, children of a King-

Glad of heart, his holy name confessing,

Praises unto him we bring."

Just so know that you are in my prayers and that I love you all. This is God's true church and if we obey the commandments, we will be blessed.

Te amo,

Hermana Brittner

Hermana Brittner LOVES the MTC!

WEEK 1 AT THE MTC

Ole familia y amigos!-

Como estas? I am doing well. I have been a missionary at the MTC for ONE week now! I am doing well and enjoying it here. I have to admit that the first few days were tough- for some reason, it's like that for all new missionaries- at least that's what everyone says. They say if you can make it til Wed (P-day), then you are golden. I guess I've made it =D I think the time when I really felt a sigh of relief, was when I practiced teaching and testifying of Jesus Christ on Tuesday night. It made me remember how much I love teaching the Gospel and the Spirit that is there when we teach church principles. I feel very prepared to be here through EFY (teaching by the Spirit) and BYU (learning how to study- honestly, I haven't studied this hard since Anatomy) and working at the candy counter (kind of like contacting- talking with strangers). Lol. Those are just a few of the ways I feel the Lord has prepared me for my mission.

Thank you so much for your love and support. I love getting letters and emails from family and friends. I never realized how encouraging it is to missionaries to receive mail from home until now. And thank you for the packages! It's so fun getting mail and packages and I love the valentines you guys made for me. I only get 30 mins every P-day Wed to write so you can expect to hear from me then. I can also only write letters on P-day as well. I get dearelders everyday and it's great to see a letter on my desk when I get back from lunch or dinner. Aunt Cindy- thanks so much for the dress. It is perfect and I can't wait to wear it.

I have two companeros (companions)- Hermana Peel from Mesa, AZ who was a student at ASU and Hermana Van Dusen (from SoCal who was a student at BYU-I). They are great- we laugh and have fun together and we are still trying to figure out how to do this whole mission thing together. Two days after I arrived, they made me senior companion! Haha as if I have any more of a clue what is going on. But it is nice that I have lived in Provo previously and worked at the MTC- I see friends from BYU everywhere- it is so great! At the temple, in the cafeteria- so much so, that my companions are like, "who don't you know?" I see Sister Pitchforth (my old roommate who is going to Russia) practically every day in the cafeteria. It is fun. My companions have also given me the nickname of "Hermana Long Legs" because I always go up the stairs and walk so much faster than them. Lol.

Let me give you a run-down of what it's like here- We wake up at 6- go to gym =), eat, study, go to Spanish/gospel classes eat, study more, eat, study more, go to bed. Haha. It's like a mix of EFY and BYU and I am rather fond of both so I like it. The first day, we learned to pray in Spanish and bear our testimonies. I can now successfully do both and now we are learning to contact in Spanish (go up to someone on the street and share a message of the Gospel). It is a lot of work but I love Spanish and I can't wait until I am fluent. And I hear the other missionaries on my floor who are learning to speak Mandarin or Hmong and I feel very blessed =) We have 5 elders who are in our district as well, so there are just 8 of us in all of the classes. We have fun together and help each other and I know we will be very close by the time we leave. 7 of the 8 are all going to Paraguay Asuncion North so we will be with each other our whole missions- including my companions. What a blessing to already know some missionaries when I go to Paraguay! We have two teachers- one is from Argentina- her entire class she speaks Spanish- it's great- and we have another teacher who served in Mexico. We have an Elder Labra from Austrailia from Victoria (dad, send me the names of the places you served) and he is pretty entertaining. For the first few days, our teacher couldn't understand him because of his accent.

The food here is good. I am well taken care of. I get to go to gym everyday and I am almost completely recovered from my sickness. I still have a cough but I hope it goes away soon.

I am so happy to be here- even though it's a lot of work and dedication. Last night we had a speaker from the 70 come- Elder Pearson and he admonished us to become disciples of Christ- not just missionaries. He said that we need to give up the character traits that are holding us back from becoming more like Christ and give ourselves fully to the Lord. I know it was an inspired message. I want to do everything I can to be the best missionary I can be and represent my Savior as I try to bring others to Him. It's so important to have faith in our Savior through our trials. All of the missionaries in my class hardly spoke Spanish when they came in and I know that by the time we leave we will be practically fluent. It is through hard work and faith in our Father in Heaven.