"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