Week 40 - No email

May 22, 2018

No email this week.

Week 39 - No Email

May 16, 2018

No Email

Week 38 - No Email

May 8, 2018

No Email this Week.

Week 37 - No Email This Week

May 1, 2018

No Email This Week!

Week 36 - By the Grace of God

April 24, 2018

This week we helped a cute little grandma do her family history and start putting all the information she has on family search! It was a little miracle because the first time she met us she didn't want to meet with us, but then as we kept talking I realized she loves knowing about her past, so we offered to help her with family search and she accepted! It's really amazing the joy that comes from just finding one ancestor more! She was so excited and all smiles. There really is a special spirit that comes from doing family history.

This week we had intercambios (exchanges?) with a few hermanas and one thing that we have been focusing on is recognizing the gifts and attributes we have been given. It is ever so easy to get down on yourself, not recognize your progress, and overlook the attributes we do have. I know I do! And I've been finding I'm not the only one! So we talked about what we can do to do better with this. One was to not work on 20 things at the same time, but to pick one or two to improve on for now, and to measure your progress. Another was we made boxes for the hermanas to put little notes of attributes or gifts they've recognized in the other comp. (I think this could be taken to a family scale too:) it helps us get outside ourselves and see the strengths in others! and another was to pray to help God show us our strengths and how we can use them to bless others, and he will bless us with opportunities. Some scriptures I found relating to this, of how everything we do and effort we make is worth it!: 

"But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." (1 Corin. 15:10)

"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." (1 Corin. 15:58)

A miracle we saw this week, well, last night actually was that the conserje (front desk man) at our apartment told us he wants us to share the gospel with him! I know it's been a lot of little things that have led up to him being receptive to the gospel, and it really is a miracle! Another one is that a menos activos accepted us into his home, who has never accepted talking with anyone about the chuch! He also gave us flashlights and chocolate milk, he's a really sweet old grandpa! Another one is we were able to share with a lady named Rubi who is caring for three abuelitos who have alzheimers, and we were able to lift her spirits and help her feel the love of God through the Spirit! She is really ready for the gospel. Ahhh I love missionary work!!

Hope you all have a wonderful week and find opportunities to follow the spirit!

Mucho amor,

Hermana Briggs

photos: las hermanas y mi zona!

Week 35 - No Email

April 18, 2018

No email this week!

Week 34 - 8 Month Mark!

April 10, 2018

Not sending a group email. don't have time but heres a few from today! we went up into the mountains! 

I'm already hitting my 8 month mark!! actually on your birthday I will! That means I have only 10 months left, less than a year. How time does fly! I feel like I'm still 15 years old but I really have grown a lot. I don't know if it seems like it, maybe probably not, but I really have learned SO much. Hna siebach and I were talking about how could people develop a strong enough testimony and be ready for life without a mission?? I know people can, but I personally don't understand it, and I think that's why God knew I needed to go on one!

Week 33 - This Great Week!

April 3, 2018

Hey all! This week was amazing. I really love being a missionary. I cant even explain it. There is just nothing that even compares to the joy that comes from sharing Christs gospel and serving others.

Wednesday I picked up my visa in santiago centro! We just waited a very long time in a long line but now I'm official! wahoo!

We have started a new initiative to start working with the members on a much grander level. We have decided that working through and with members is the way to do the missionary work here in Las Condes and that it will bring many blessings. We are always told to work with the members, but during correlation, a ward missionary came up with a plan to work directly with the members and to help them know what they should be doing and how they can help with missionary work. Then in district meeting we talked about the same thing, about making references the major way that we receive investigators. Yesterday we started doing this, and we received 5 references from the same hermana during lunch! And then after she said, 'I think she's home, lets go right now and see!' so we did and went and contacted with her and are going back this friday with the hermana! It really was a miracle!

General Conference was really powerful. It has always been especially special to watch it as a missionary. I felt a spiritual witness that President Nelson is God's living prophet. I am so very grateful to know that we have someone to lead and guide us! I loved his challenge to improve your ability to receive and act on personal revelation. I am definitely going to work on that! I saw a theme, which was following the promptings of the spirit. 

Story time! This week we were contacting a street and every single house was rejecting us very rudely. We were getting a little discouraged, but decided to knock or ring one more house. A woman opened the door and was on the phone. She put it down and told us to come back in 30 min. So we did! And she invited us in and we taught her and her husband and daughter right there! They were really receptive and we are going back this week. It was amazing! We definitely saw blessings for perseverance.  

Love you all! Keep following the spirit and trusting in God's plan for you. 

Amor,

Hermana Briggs

Week 32 - Vamos Las Condes

March 27, 2018

happy weekly update:

We had zone conference wednesday which is always just the greatest. I got to teach a part with my comp and the zone leaders to the rest of our zone about the importance of doing practices, which our president wants us to focus on a lot more. Something that I realized while preparing for this was that Christ didn't start his full ministry until he was 30 years old. He was preparing for all that time! And if you think of all the great athletes and musicians, they practiced for hours and hours every week just for their 5 min performance or 2 hour game. So what would it take to be a master missionary?? Practice and prepare of course! So that's one of our focuses for this exchange, doing practices as comps, to fulfill our end objective which is to increase our faith in Christ and in His promises. So if anything scares you or you're nervous, just practice it! Even if it is something that seems silly to do so.

This week we met with Karina who has so many questions del alma! She is 23 and is getting married next january, and 23 is really young to be getting married here, and she is doing it becasue she feels the family is really important to God. She is willing to read the book of mormon and pray to know if it is true, and because she is willing to act and recieve answers I know she is going to get one. God really does respond according to our faith! We are meeting with her tonight and I'm really excited.

We had a family home evening with a menos activos family where we shared about easter and talked about the impotance of Christ in our lives. They have gone through quite a few hard things in the recent past, and the hermana was crying becasue she was remembering how blessed she was to recieve her trials. She recognized the things she had gained becasue of them, and that they are things money can't buy, like closer relations with her family and with Christ. She came to church this sunday with her 3 of her kids since months and months and it really was such a miracle!

I love being a missionary and sometimes can't imagine not being one. I hope each of you are loving where you are and what you're doing, and try to think of some blessing you wouldn't have without a trial you are going through or have had recently. I know God is blessing us more that we can realize.

Don't forget to watch the prophets and apostles of God speak to us this saturday and sunday! I promise that if you prepare to recieve answers and guidance you will be answered and be inspired by the words of the living prophets. Wahoo can't wait!!

Love love and more love,

Hermana Briggs

ps fun lunch story: we ate at a chef's house this week and had sea slug called locos, (loco means crazy in spanish) and I can tell you from experience, yep..they were pretty 'loco'