I'm home!!! - My homecoming is at 1:00 pm at the Old Perry Church (2450 South, west of Hwy 89 in Perry). Come to my house afterwards!

SHE'S HOME!

I don't even know what to call this e-mail...aside from awesome!

    Well, friends, this is it.  Soeur Holmes and I had an awesome week these past seven days.  Right now I'm in the weird phase of being like, "Wow, last week I was sitting here writing emails, and by this time next week, well, honestly, I'll probably be writing emails, but from a different computer, and to missionaries and members instead of friends and family."  But really, I can honestly say I've been very proud of myself.  Soeur Holmes and I have been staying focused, and I've been trying to make sure we have time for finding and contacting these past couple of days, instead of just going around and seeing everyone I want to see.  Here are some cool experiences I had a few days ago.  We were out contacting, and we talked to this 18 or 19 year old Belge girl, Deborah, on the street.  It was such a good moment to talk with her.  We talked about how Christ can help us, and we prayed with her.  I just felt so good afterwards, and I'm so excited to call her to fix another time.  Later on in the day, we were sitting on the tram.  I turned to Soeur Holmes to copy down some of the things she had written in her agenda.  Across from me was sitting a woman.  In my head, I thought to myself, "I have a totally justifiable reason to not talk to this woman.  I am doing something that I need to do (copying stuff down from the other agenda)."  I then said to myself, "I have lots of stuff I need to do.  However, that is not what I am HERE to do.  I am here to talk to people and invite them to Christ."  So I put down my agenda, and started up a conversation with a woman whom I came to find was named Martha.  Martha is from Brazil.  She knows the church already, in fact, she's already been to the church in Brazil before.  She is very sweet, and kind, and even though we were on a crowed tram, I asked if I could leave her with a word of prayer, so she and I folded our arms, and bowed our heads close together, and I offered a sweet, simple, prayer.  It made me so happy to have decided to talk to this woman (and don't worry, I got her number from her!).  We also had a miracle this weekend with our amie, Emilia.  She, and Gustavo (a young adult in the ward), came with us to have a FHE with another Brazlian family in the ward.  The evening went super well, and we finished with the four of us going to the church to see the end of the baptism of Landrine, a wonderful sister that Elder Alfaro and Elder Bananier taught.  Emilia loved it.  She talked with some people that she had met before, and had a great time.  The next day (aka, yesterday), we had another rdv with the Perez family (the family that introduced us to Emilia) and Emilia.  And when she came, she didn't come by herself, she also brought her two daughters, Daniella and Béatrice, and her boyfriend, Manuel, who is also from Portugal.  It was PERFECT.  We had planned to watch 'The Restoration' film, so before beginning, Emilia explained to her daughters what prophets were.  Gustavo was also there and helped explain.  Then all 10 of us watched the film.  I felt the spirit tell me to place my trust in the inspiration of this film, and I truly felt the spirit.  Afterwards we asked them questions about the film, then watched as Daniella (age 8) and Béatrice (age 10) offered their very first non-memorized prayers.  It was beautiful.  

     I've noticed my thoughts becoming more and more easily distracted with thoughts of going home and such, but I've also felt the Lord's strength in helping me get up every morning and keep going.  Lots of missionaries ask me how I'm feeling, and sometimes, I just tell them, "As far as I'm concerned, tomorrow I'm waking up at 6h30, and Soeur Holmes is going to make me go running."  Bishop Keesling thanked me for my work yesterday at the end of Sacrament Meeting, which was so sweet to me.  I love that man, he is so kind, and I love this ward!  Belgium has been having an awesome winter, which makes the thought of coming home to the dreaded cold even harder.  But I know we are all called for a specific time, and that Soeur Nilsson, who will be taking my place here in Louise, will do a wonderful job with Soeur Holmes.  Today President talked about how we all have specific missions and sometimes we work really hard and we accomplish what the Lord asked of us, and then He gives us a new mission.  So... I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for me.  But, until that moment comes, I'm still Soeur Bracken!  I am so blessed, and these past 18 months have done more for me than anything else I could possibly have dreamt of doing.  I've made some eternal friends, and I know for SURE that the Lord has been with me throughout these months (although we all have moments when we distance ourselves from the Lord).  He loves us, like, seriously, He loves us so much.  John 3:16, people, JOHN 3:16!  We can all change, we can all become better.  His grace is sufficient!  I want everyone to just take 30 seconds of your life to think about that phrase.  "His grace is sufficient..."  Sufficient for what?  For the tiny children who are taken from this world while still in their innocence?  For all the righteous people who lived in the time of Enoch or King Benjamin?  People in our day?  His grace is sufficient, but for what?  To forgive us of our little sins?  To heal us when we're broken-hearted?  Even with depression?  With anger?  The answer to all of the above, as I'm sure you know, is "Yes".  End of sentence.  In Moroni and D&C 18, and in other places in the scriptures, the Lord simply says, "My grace is sufficient for you."  End of sentence.  Through the Lord, and only through the Lord, can we expect any real progress in this life.  I love Him so much.  

             Love,

                 Soeur Bracken

Pictas!

 

 1) Emilia (next to me), her daughters, and Sister Perez, and her daughter, and us

2) Gustavo, Emilia, and us

3) Our DMP, André, (in the middle) the wards missionaries (Jacob and Gustavo), and us.  It's awesome to have such a strong, YOUNG missionary force in the ward

4) My umbrella got taken out by the bus this week... As you can see, Soeur Holmes was heartbroken

5) Victoria Palomaki and us.  She is our favorite little girl, and her parents are the most legit members of the ward!  She speaks french, swedish, and is learning english.  Her mom told us that one day, she said, "Mama, quand les missionnairs viennent, on parle english!"  Which translate to "Mama, when the missionaries come, we speak english! (only she actually did say 'english' in english.  That little girl is so smart!).

6)  And finally, our awesome Zone- For our District, Elder Platt is now going to Strasbourg, Elder Bananier is going to be Zone Leader in Antony (Paris area).  Elder Christensen is going to Versailles, and me, well... I might run away to the south of France.

Only one full week left?!?!

Dearest friends,

It's only fitting to share a little scripture with you, especially
since this scripture is an absolute powerhouse, and is our mission
theme for this next year.  We find it in D&C 64: 33-34
     33 Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the
foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that
which is great.

 34 Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the
willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these
last days.

This past week, Soeur Holmes and I were able to go down to Paris for a
giant Mission Leadership council, it was very spiritual, and we loved
it.  I also was able to finally get my Christmas package!  Thanks Mr.
and Mrs. Claus!  Haha, and also, due to a small joke I had with the
office elders, inside my box I found an extra present, a container of
Ferrero Rochers!  The six missionaries on the train enjoyed them, and
in fact, we gave one to the guy sitting with us, and we ended up
having a awesome conversation with him on the train about the church.
We also had our Zone Conference, and I gave my dying testimony.  It
was weird.  I didn't cry.  Soeur Holmes and I also gave a training
about being positive and having faith.  I think we actually did a
pretty decent job.  Of course, even with 7 other Zone Conferences
going on at the same time, of course it was ours that President
decided to come to.  Stressful... This week, I also did exchanges with
Soeur Callister and Soeur Hilton.  Soeur Callister is so sweet.  It
was super cool to be with her, because nine months ago, when she was
in her first transfer, we did our exchanges together!  I was her first
exchange companion, and now, 9 months later, she was one of my last!
It was also cool, because now she is training in Arras and has her own
baby girl.  Gotta love mission life.  We had a great time together.  I
also finally got to do an exchange is Liège, which is something I've
been wanting to do since July!  Haha, and it didn't let me down!
Soeur Hilton and I saw some miracles from passing by people and
contacting.  She's super sick right now (like half of the sisters in
the mission it seems like...), but we still carried on.  Satureday was
also an eventful day.  I reached a milestone in my mission - I've
officially been gone 18 months!  Soeur Holmes and I celebrated by
eating Indian food.  The Lord also rewarded our work by helping us
find 6 new amies!  We taught two women who live right by us, then we
taught again the cousin of a family in the ward, and then, that
evening, we met a mom and her daughter on the tram, and they let us
come over and share a spiritual thought with them and her son.  The
mom is from Angola, and speaks... portuguese.  But her french is
alright, and my portuguese is just enough to make them laugh and break
the ice.  We were able to fix another rdv with them also!  Seriously,
so blessed.  Another awesome moment came yesterday, Sunday.  Filipe
came to church with Gustavo.  Now, obviously, this is good and bad.
Maria wasn't there, which is a bummer, because she was tired and
hadn't slept well.  But Filipe came by himself!!!  How amazing is
that?  He also shared with us why Maria was tired and not sleeping
very well... they are expecting another child!  Hooray!  We visited
last night and had a wonderful lesson.  I know someday that Filipe is
going to get baptized!
      Well, hope you liked my longer-than-usual letter.  It's been a
great week, and I look forward to what we have in store this week!
            Je vous aime, tous et toutes!
                       Soeur Bracken

Just 2 weeks!

Two weeks from today is Lexi's homecoming talk. She will be speaking in the Perry 7th ward Sacrament Meeting. Sacrament meeting starts at 1:00 pm. 2450 South, just west of Highway 89. When you see the Heritage Theatre turn immediately West. Chapel is across the street from the Perry Park.
Lunch and refreshments served afterwards @ the Bracken house. 2435 South 500 West, Perry.

A bunch of us singing at Grand-Place! We were a little famous..

Christmas Eve!

"How do feel now that your are dying?"

Dear friends,

Well, it's that time of week again!  You get to choose whether to read my email or to save it and think to yourself that you'll read it later, haha, like THAT's going to happen... 

But seriously, every person that I send this email to is a personal friend of mine, and I am so grateful for all the positive affects you have on my life.  

   So, bonne année!  I hope 2014 has started off on a wonderful note for everyone!  For us, on Monday, I was on exchange with Soeur Stapley, we went and visited Grace and Sandra, two recent converts from this past summer.  They are so adorable.  Soeur Stapley and I did some contacting the next day.  Did I already mention that we live in mini Brazil/Portugal?  Got to learn portuguese!  We contacted a lady, and asked her about Christmas.  She repeated the question to herself in her native language, and I distinctly heard the word 'natal', and I said to myself, "I know that word!  I used it yesterday in my email to my family!  That's portuguese for Christmas!"  I guessed Portugal, turns out she was from Brazil.  We also saw Thérèse and Catherine, two of our amies.  I love them all so much, I just want to see them have their own testimony of these things!  New Year's Eve a bunch of the missionaries went over to the Palomaki's, and then to Marie-Pierre's house.  I LOVE THEM ALL SO MUCH!  I can't send a picture this week, because my camera is dead, but I'll send one next week.  The next day, we slept in.  I'm not going to lie, Soeur Holmes has said I've been doing pretty well on not getting trunky, but having a little taste of sleeping in like that makes me EVER so excited to be able to sleep in again soon.  But I know at the same time, I'll be so sad to leave this place.  We went over to a member, Claude Bernard, the evening, and watched 'Ephraim's Rescue'.  Good film!  We had our very first District Meeting of the transfer this past week, which is crazy, because is was already week 4!  We also went on exchanges with Valenciennes again.  I got to be with Soeur Whisler again!  She and I really get along, and we had some good moments during our exchange.  Haha, she is in her third transfer, and already has dreams of being an Sister Training Leader in Paris.  She asked me how I felt when I was called to be STL, and was a little shocked when I replied, "I was ticked.  I didn't want to do it!"  Haha, good times.  I also told her it was because I didn't like doing exchanges, she replied "You don't like doing exchanges?" and I said, " I DIDN'T like doing them.  I love them now."  She and others have asked me recently, "So... What is it like to be dying?"  For all the young missionaries, it's just so unfathomable to think about actually going home.  I remember those days... Saturday we ate dinner at Maria and Filipe's with the family Queiroz.  Haha, SO good.  Portuguese food is delicious.  I'm so jealous of President and Sister Fluckiger.  I adore Queiroz, because during our lesson, he had enough courage to ask Filipe why he hadn't been baptized yet.  I think that helped coming from Queiroz, and not from us.  Yesterday, we had a surprise meal right after church with the family Nascimento, again, a family from Brazil.  They are so cool.  They invited over two friends, and then today, had another friend over, that we were able to pass by and meet.  The Lord is with us, and we are so blessed.  I am so tired all the time, but I love my life, although it's true, 10:29 pm may still be my favorite time of day.  Today Soeur Holmes' wallet was stolen while we were shopping.  But, after trying to cancel her cards (a lot harder process than you would have thought) and many silent prayers, we were finally able to cancel her card and look at her account- no money had been spent.  Blessings!  Well dear friends, share the gospel, and remember the wise words of Alma 5: 44-45 - Make sure you know these things for yourself!

                                           Soeur Bracken

Thinkin' I got called to the wrong language....

Feliz Natal!  Oh, in case you didn't know, I got transfered from the France Paris Mission to the Brazil Bresilia Mission, or... at least it feels like it.  Haha, so much Portuguese!  C'est incroyable!  For the past couple of weeks, we had been trying to hard to have a FHE with Maria/Filipe and Brother and Sister Queiroz, who are from Brazil.  We FINALLY succeeded in having the FHE at the Queiroz's house.  Unfortunately, Fililpe wasn't able to come, but Maria came with her mom and son, and absolutely LOVED it.  She and Soeur Queiroz are both young moms, and got along splendidly.  The next night was a Christmas party at a member's house, and Maria and Filipe came together!  It was wonderful.  We drove down with them and Gustavo, and they just loved it.  They are getting incorporated into the ward! Hooray!  We also brought out amie, Suzette, haha, which was last minute... Oh, that was hectic.  But, she made some friends at the party.  The Spanish equipe has an amie that they've been working with for a while, and she has finally decided to get baptized, and she just went over and befriended Suzette, and it was wonderful!

   So, between the Brazilian FHE, and eating at a Dominican Republic member's house on Christmas Eve,  teaching a new Polish amie, visiting the mother of a member who hails from Mexico, and other similar experiences, all I've got to say is, "Welkom bij Brussel" (Dutch).  Haha, I don't know if I spelled it right, but that language gets thrown in there every once in a while also.  Christmas Eve was fantastic- We sang at Grand-Place, which was an amazing experience.  We spent Christmas Day sleeping in, then we went over to the Wright's for lunch.  And, of course, Skyping with my family was absolutely wonderful.  We had a wonderful experience this weekend also.  We FINALLY succeeded in having Maria (Filipe wasn't able to come) and her mom and son come over to the Famille Queiroz (an awesome family in the ward).  Maria ablsolutely LOVED it.  The next night, at a Christmas party at a member's house, Maria and Soeur Queiroz talked for so long!  They are already planning another evening together next weekend (haha, and yes, we also got invited).  Yay for family integration!  It made me so happy.  We also had another amie, Suzette, who came, and also made friends.  We were so blessed!  Well, I wish you all a bonne année 2014!  My year in Europe, 2013, has been one for the books!

        Avec amour,

               Soeur Bracken

Christmas Photos

Christmas Conferences, Companionship changes, cold climate and the crazy chirgurie(french for surgery)

Well, this has been a totally hectic week for us, but like, what else is new?

First off, 3 Nephi 1:13- A wonderful verse that gets me everytime.  The Lord tells Nephi that the next day he will come into the world.  What an amazing moment that must have been for Nephi.  The Savoir, knowing He was just hours away from accomplishing the most incredible mission anyone could ever embark on, gave one last message of comfort to the Nephites.  He truly did come into the world to fulfill His Father's purpose, and that is something that literally has the power to change everyone's life.  How grateful we should be!  When I was younger, I always used to see the wooden star that my mom would have displayed on the piano mantle around Christmas time that says, "Wise men still seek Him".  That used to always confuse me.  I would read it over and over again, but I never 'got it'.  There were times I would just flat out not like it, because I thought it was written incorrectly, perhaps it was supposed to have been written in the past, like, "Wise men still sought Him", afterall, the wisemen lived well over 2000 years ago, right?  Eventually I just dealt with it, but every year, I just didn't like that star!  It was only within that last couple of years that I finally read it and it 'clicked'.  WISE MEN STILL SEEK HIM.  Haha, you can imagine my "Aha!" moment!  Now, almost 17 1/2 months into my mission, I can truly testify that the wisest thing any of us can do is to seek the one and only Jesus Christ.  Seek Him, and seek Him always.  

 

  The Christmas Conference was amazing this past week.  There should be pictures on the mission facebook page.  The Poznanskis are so loved by the missionaries.  I truly felt the spirit while we were there.  I did exchanges with Soeur Allred and Soeur Covington this past week, so that was fun, but tiring.  Soeur Wynn is really sick, so pray for her, please.  Speaking of prayers, the surgery for Soeur Anderson went incredibly well, and we all feel very blessed.  After being diagnosed with a cyst in her brain, the entire mission prayed for her as this amazing sister missionary underwent emergency brain surgery.  President Poznanski felt prompted to let us know that everything would be fine, and it was!  She is recovering, and our thanks go to Heavenly Father (and the awesome surgeon).  Well, this is Christmas week!  I hope everyone remembers just how blessed we all are!

     I love you!

         Soeur Bracken

A request for Lexi's blog followers

The Bracken family is requesting prayers for Sister Emily Anderson. She is currently serving in the Paris, France Mission. After suffering with migraines for 2 weeks, she was diagnosed with a cyst on her brain. She has undergone surgery to remove the cyst. Her parents have arrived to be with her. Our prayers and best wishes for her and her family, please.
Thank-you

Christmas Contacting!

Buenos Dias, tout le monde!

So, what a crazy week we've had!  Tuesday, Soeur Holmes and I had an awesome FHE with the Wright couple, and Marie-Pierre and Marie-Paule.  We love those sisters so much!  Marie-Pierre is such a solid rock in the gospel, and all the kids in her family are so classy and wonderful.  Wednesday, we weren't affected by the change, but we did welcome two different elders into the Ward, Elder Martin, who is dandy, and Elder Everett, whom I've known for about a year now.  Elder Everett is from Canada and speaks Quebecoise french, which I LOVE!  We had an interesting expercience on Wednesday.  We had a received a text from some of the elders who were waiting at the church for their new companions to arrive.  It was just kind of a joke text about my mormon.org profile page, which they had recently stumbled upon, while looking through profile pages online.  We decided to get back at them, by taking a few minute detour and visiting the church.  My plan was to pretend to get really mad at them about the text, and then shortly after tell them it was a joke.  Soeur Holmes didn't have the composure to stand beside me, so I walked into the computer room, straight-faced and serious-toned, and just tore into them.  Poor Elder Platt, who had sent the text, and was sitting in the middle of the room, got the blunt of it.  I told them that what they had sent was inappropriate, stupid, and that they shouldn't even have been there, they should have been out talking to people.  Then before I lost the seriousness in my voice, I turned around and left, walked down the two steps to where Soeur Holmes was waiting for me, and smiled as we listened to the Elders sit in complete silence.  Then I came back into the room and told them it was a joke.  The sigh of relief that came out of those elders enough to keep a kite flying for a least a couple of seconds.  Poor Elder Platt, he looked like he had almost gotten a little emotional at me getting so mad at him.  Everyone was so shocked and were like, "That just wasn't like you!"  We all got a good laugh, but Soeur Holmes and I were like, "We can't stay, we have no need to be here"  We tried to encourage them to really go out and do contacting, but they're good missionaries, so we weren't really hard on them.  But then, talking about that, Soeur Holmes and I said, "You know, it really is important to use up this time wisely, and to do contacting (talking to people on the streets)", So off we went.  And would you believe it?  The first lady we talked to gave us her number, and then the third or so lady stopped, and we talked with her, prayed with her, and fixed a RDV!  How amazing is that?!  Her name is Patricia, and we're going to see her tomorrow.  Then, the lady after that was a lady that we had ALREADY contacted about 2 weeks previously, but hadn't been willing to give us her number, and we had unknowingly given her the wrong number from us.  So, miracle of miracles, we ran into her again!  She didn't look familier to me, but Soeur Holmes recognized her instantly, and amazingly enough, she was able to pull her name out of the depths of her memory.  Clemantina!  We got her number, and gave her our number.  All of this happened in just 25 or so short minutes.  It was amazing, and fortified my testimony of being outside when we're supposed to.  On Thursday, we went to the hospital to decorate the room for Catherine, our Recent Convert, who is still there.  She loved it.  On Friday, we had mission council, so I took advantage of seeing Soeur Mataalii, and listening to Elder Clawson sing.  It was also a wonderful time, where we learned about how to focus on Christmas while we contact people, hence, Christmas Contacting!  The Ward Christmas party was amazing!  There were SO many people there!  Marie-Pierre came with her sister, brother, and mom.  I love all of them.  It was incredible.  Our amie, Catherine, also came, as well and Cassandre, the neice of the Palomakis, and Filipe (Maria was too tired to come).  And yesterday, we had another amazing experience.  We decided to do the 'Christmas Contacting', and, would you look at that?  More miracles!  We contacted two Belge women, talked to them about Christmas, sang for them, prayed with them, and fixed a time to come back this week.  Then, 3 minutes later, we contacted a woman from Portugal, prayed with her, and fixed another RDV, after having talked about Christmas, and how to make it more centered on Christ, with her.  SO COOL!!!  Well, every day I get more and more tired, but as you can see, the Lore hasn't gotten tired of helping us.  He just waits for us to do our little part, just so He can show us how much He can give us!  How blessed we are!

            I love you all,

                   Passez une bonne semaine!

                                Soeur Bracken

I'M STAYING!!!!

Hello everyone!  Sorry, I'll have to keep it short!  So, I'm staying in Bruxelles!!! I'm SO EXCITED!!!  Soeur Holmes and I are staying together.  Christmas in Bruxelles!   Cassandre, the niece of the Palomakis, came up, and she is LEGIT!  She is so ready for the gospel.  And Suzette, oh, we had the best experience with her yesterday!  We went together to visit Catherine at the hospital, and they got along SO well!  Then, on the way out we ran into some people who kind of knew the church, and Suzette totally bore testimony!!!  I love this week!  Have a great week everyone!

       Soeur Bracken

Peanut Butter Pie, Parties, and Perfectly planned Trams

So, we had an awesome week this week!

This past week, Soeur Gordon came up from Charleroi and spent the day with me.  Soeur Holmes, the lucky duck, got to have dinner with the Ypersiers.  This past week was also everyone's birthdays- and by 'everyone's' , I mean both Marie-Pierre and Maria.  So happy birthday to our recent converts!  Marie-Pierre is doing awesome, and we FINALLY saw Maria and Filipe yesterday.  Of course, Thanksgiving was a party.  Soeur Wright went all out, with decorative turkey cupcakes and everything.  Can't beat her.  I managed to 'whip' together a pomegranate salad, which included actual whipped cream.  Later, all the 'kids' (aka the sisters and elders) watched '17 miracles', which was awesome.  Haha, I admit, it was a little weird watching a movie with a large group of people- not usually the norm.  Then, towards the weekend, it was Stake Conference!  Whoo!  Another party!  We had lunch with Joanna, a recent convert from Brazil, taught us how to make some wicked blackbeans and rice.  Man, I'm not going to lie, my cooking skills have become much better developed since starting my mission.  Then, all of us went to the adult session of Stake Conference, which all the missionaries were invited to attend (seeing as the entire session was about missionary work).  Then, the Liège sisters slept over.  Haha, and luckily for us, Soeur Holmes had prepared THE MOST AMAZING PEANUT BUTTER PIE EVER!!!  Here's a teaser for you- it contains peanut butter, powdered sugar, sweetened condensed milk, cream cheese, an oreo crust, bananas, and nutella.  So, the answer is yes, you'll die of a heart attack, but yes, you'll also die happy.  Seriously, it's incredible.  Then, Sunday, oh blessed day of the week, it was a day full of miracles!  So, it started out with us all heading to Stake conference in Strombeek.  First, we picked up Suzette, our amie, and walked to our church, there, we met Marie-Pierre, and all jumped in the car with Joanna.  Elder Teixeira spoke and Stake Conference, and they also reorganized the Stake Presidency, so that was cool.  Then, that night, we had 3 rdvs fixed at the homes of members, and they all happened!  First we went to the Perez family, but unfortunately, that went longer than intended, and we were unsure how late we were going to be to the Kabongo's, our next appointment.  We ran out of the Perez's house at 5:55, our next rdv being at 6:00.  I did the math in my head.  There was no way we were going to be there before 6:30, and Marie-Pierre was meeting us at the Kabongo's with her non-member sister.  The only information I knew- We needed the Tram 81 in the direction of Marius Renard.  The Tram had a stop at Gare du Midi, which was a 15 minute walk on foot.  I had no idea how long it would take us once we got to the gare, maybe another 20 minutes.  We get outside the Perez's, decided to run to a random metro stop and look and see what we need to do to get to the nearest 81 stop, and we see a Tram coming towards us.  Wonder of wonders, it's the 81!  Heading in the wrong direction.  We run across the street to the other side.  Miracle of miracles!  We see the 81 in the right direction coming right to our stop!  We jump on, say a prayer of thanks, and we're off!  We got the Kabongo's at 6:15, just 5 minutes after Marie-P showed up.  Then, back on the metro, and Maria answers her phone and says we can come over!  So we're back on the 81 for a wonderful lesson with Maria and Filipe!  It was incredible, and we felt immensely blessed.  So, life is going well.  Winter is coming on, but so is Christmas!  I feel so blessed to be able to serve the Lord again this Christmas, and help those in this place that I love so much.

             Passez une bonne semaine!

                    Soeur Bracken

PS-I totally burned my hand on the coil on the top of the microwave.  Dang thing hurts like the dickens.

Je suis fierre de Marie-Pierre!

Hello one and all!

Well, first I have to apologize.  I was just thinking about how I used to put so much effort into the titles of my emails.  I'm not sure exactly when that stopped, but I have realized that I have been sorely slacking in that sphere of email etiquette.  I'll try to do better next week.  

   Well, this week has just flown by!  And yet, because so much has happened, it feels like last week was a month ago!  This past week, Soeur Holmes and I went down to Arras, where I had a wonderful exchange with Soeur Campbell, from Bountiful Utah.  Apparently, from what I've learned on the mission, Bountiful is the place to live.  Both Sheri Dew and Elder Nelson are in her ward.  She has from funny stories about them.  Then, we came back and had our interviews with President Poznanski.  This interview was fantastic!  The only problem was when I was talking to President, and he asked if I had any questions.  The only question I was able to pose him was, "Am I staying here for my last transfer?"  Haha, I knew President would never ACTUALLY tell me, and sure enough, he gave me a vague answer with just enough clarity to scare me.  "You know, Soeur Bracken, I've actually been thinking about that.  You have one transfer left.  It would be easy for me to leave you here.  But then, maybe that would be TOO easy for you?  You're versitle enough, maybe I could put you with a struggling sister, or maybe have you train another STL?  I'm just going to wait until I receive some inspiration."  Geeze, President, way to make me nervous!  I told him I thought he should open Quimper to sisters again, and I'd be more than happt to go back.  All he said was, "Desolée, c'est pas toujours evident" (Sorry, it's not always that easy).  But, Soeur Holmes and I weren't the only ones getting interviewed on Wednesy, it was also the baptismal interview of Marie-Pierre!  Oh, she passed with flying colors!  And the Palomakis (a favorite family in the ward) were very welcoming at their apartment.  On Friday, Nov. 22, Marie-Pierre was baptized!  And she brought her whole family!  We already knew her sister and one of her brothers, but then we met the other brother and her mom, who live in Namur.  It was wonderful.  We had so many people there!  On Sunday, Frère Palomaki confirmed her.  Later that night, the three of us (Soeur Holmes, Marie-P, and I) all went to the Bishop's house for a little get-together.  We ended up inviting the Bishop (who is from Arizona) to have Thanksgiving with us and the rest of the missionaries in our zone! I also did an exchange with Soeur Anderson, from Seattle Washington on Thursday in Strombeek.  It was a wonderful time.  All these sisters are such great examples to me!  The first thing I say to sisters when we start our exchanges together, is that exchanges = miracles, assuming we work hard.  And honestly, I have seen a miracle CHAQUE (each) time I have done an exchange.  The Lord is amazing.  That honestly has been about my week.  This next weekend is Stake Conference, so that is exciting.  We just had a lesson with one of our amies, Suzette, who hasn't been able to come to church yet.  But she doesn't work on Sunday, so she said she would come this week!  So far, this has the makings to be a great week!  I love you all, and as I celebrate Thanksgiving here, I'll be sure to think of all the wonderful friends and family chez moi that I love and miss.  Have a Merry Thanksgiving!

             Soeur Bracken

Baptism of Marie-Pierre!

Get ready for Marie-Pierre!

Hello everyone!  

Well, this week, like usual, was crazy, but it in an awesome way.  I did exchanges with Soeur Johns, from Liège and with Soeur Searle, from Valenciennes.  They are both wonderful sisters, and we had a great time. I loved working with Soeur Searle because she's the only sister that we get to do exchanges with that is actually older than me in the mission, so it was wonderful to reminisce with her about life a year ago.  Ah, how weird is that?  I honestly never thought I would be 'reminiscing' about mission life a year ago.  It really happens.  Life, even mission life, goes on, one day at a time.  Sunday was the Primary Program for our ward.  It was in english and french, and was super cute.  I loved it.  Also, Soeur Holmes and I had some great times this week, for example (don't freak out mom), we were walking down the street, and a man offered us some weed.  Haha, then he saw our badges, and was like, "Oh... Jesus..."  Yeah...we weren't really interested.  And then, last monday, it was a holiday, so the regular store that we go to was closed, and we had to go to a more expensive store (that didn't accept our cards, so we had to run for 15 minutes to find an ATM) to buy our food.  The chicken was so expensive!  Then we saw a whole, unskinned chicken, which was less expensive, and I said to Soeur Holmes, "Oh, we can just cut it up, let's get it!"  So we did!  Haha, we had a blast when we finally opened it up.  We said to ourselves, "Well, guess we'd better skin it", so that was a new experience for us, but I'm proud to say we did it, and it wasn't that hard, and it saved us a lot of money!  Soeur Holmes and Soeur Whisler (from Valenciennes) had an awesome experience this past week.  They were some porting and decided to port this one street, and the very first door they knocked on was a portuguese/brazilienne family having their very own FHE!  They said it was awesome.  They let them in, and then later and talked to them.  A few nights ago, we went back and talked to them about the restoration.  They're pretty firm in their own religion, but hey, early apostles baptized whole congregations, right?  So why not us?  This weekend is the baptism of our dear Marie-Pierre, who just got back from Chicago.  We're SO excited.  The Young Adults are going to plan some stuff to make her feel really welcome. 

   Well, it's COLD here, and sometimes I feel like I just breathe cigarette smoke, and sometimes we have amies that just drop us, and sometimes life is just hard, but really, we are so blessed.  Life is wonderful.  I love you!  Enjoy the snow for me!

             Soeur Bracken

Mini Missionary!

Hello everyone!  So, sorry, I'll have to keep this email a little short, my bad!  But in my defense, we have a train to Liège to catch in 40 minutes.  So, this past week, we did exchanges with Lilli and Villeneuved'ascq.  I stayed here in Bruxelles with Soeur Covington and then Soeur Soeur Hafen (mom and dad, her dad's side of the family is from Santa Clara!  I can't remember their names, but she's from Michigan).  They are both wonderful.  Haha, Soeur Hafen has only been in the field for a week, so everything was still pretty new to her.  We had a crazy man try to talk to us.  I think he thought we were from another religion.  Anyway, he told us we were of the devil.  I told him to have a nice day, and he said, "Don't you want to talk about religion?"  "Not with you" was my reply.  We finally told him we had somewhere to go, and he said "Ok, we'll talk next time."  Sounds like a plan... Aside from that, we've been having a somewhat normal week.  We had a sister from Nivelles, Soeur Carré, who's 16 and wants to go on a mission, come up and work with us.  She's awesome!  She had such a great time, she's going to see if she can come up again in a few weeks for another day.  Maria and Filipe are doing wonderful.  Filipe has promised us that he would pray about Joseph Smith and about being baptized on Dec 7.  In Priesthood last week, they talked about anointing oil, and gave all the men a little key-ring container.  Filipe was a little confused about it, but was  proud to show us that he had put it on his keyring.  Last night we simply explained that he has to have the priesthood to use it, but that for right now it can symbolize purity and a desire to follow the Holy Ghost.  I love them so much.  Well, I've got to go.  The church is true!  I read "Waiting on the Road to Damascus" yesterday.  It helped me realize that life isn't just about waiting for grand miracles, it's just about having faith, one day at a time.