"Is Sister Bistro still with us?"

We got a fun phone call from one of our favorite less active members, Sister Rickard. She's a hoot. She will say the most outrageous things but anyways, she called us up wanting to know if "Sister Bistro" was still around. For some reason, the name Briscoe is a hard one for people to say here in The great Ohio. I've been called pretty much everything you could imagine, except 'Briscoe'.


Anyways, this week has been such an amazingly blessed week. We have found NINE new investigators!! Fasting works. Fasting really works. We had been praying and fasting for find a good family to teach and then the day after our fast we found about six families who seemed fairly interested. Two of those families only spoke Spanish and Sister Shelley doesn't speak a lick of Spanish and so I've been teaching in Spanish! But I'm getting ahead of myself. Okay. Fasting. Yes, so we fasted and then we found people so fasting totally works.

So this past Friday and Saturday, we had another Sister come stay with us and help us with training and such. Sister Kimball was able to come along with me and Sister Shelley as we taught the Mexican father and son, Bersain and Joel. I was the only one out of the three of us who spoke any Spanish but we were like "come on, the spirit will just work its awesome magic and it'll be great." So I taught the lesson and did some translating for my companions and for the investigators and at one point, when we were talking about the Book of Mormon and how they could know it was true and that Joseph Smith was a Prophet, the Spirit was so strong and Sister Kimball just turns to me and says "invite them to be baptized!" in English. I told her "Ummm, I don't know how to say that." So we scrambled around in the pamphlet and I looked up baptism and was explaining it to them and then asked them if they knew it was true if they'd be baptized and they said yes! We didn't get a date set up though because I totally forgot that fecha was date in spanish but next time, we'll get that set up. So...my Danish study is kinda slacking right now because I'm so focused on trying to teach the Spanish families we want to teach.


We are also teaching this amazing part member family. The wife is a less active member and her husband and one of her sons is very interested in the church and wanting to learn more. I really wished they would have come to church but I just have to keep telling myself "baby steps, baby stepping towards the church, baby stepping towards the font." haha. But Brother Decker (the investigating husband) is super nice and after we hugged his wife goodbye, we went in to give the good ol' classic handshake goodbye and he pulled us in for a hug! yup...so that was incredibly awkward. I mean, I already gave some of the most awkward hugs before my mission and that certainly hasn't changed. I still give very awkward hugs, especially when my male investigators hug me...yeah...we got to explain to him that we don't do that.
Oh and I got to see a good giant midwestern thunder storm. In fact, we had decided that that day would be a good day to save gas and mileage and just walk everywhere. So I got to be out in the thunderstorm for a while. And man, can it rain HARD here. and the lightning and thunder was crazy. But it was fun. I was just walking around singing "there is Sunshine in my soul today" like a good little obnoxious greenie should do :)


Missions are wonderful. Please be a missionary right now! help the missionaries in your ward and give them referrals! PLEASE. As a missionary myself, I cannot express to you how amazing it is when somebody gives you a referral. In fact, my first two baptisms were referrals. So get involved in the missionary work. Catch the wave ;)


I love you all and I pray for you every day!




Love, Sister Diana Briscoe

Baptisms, Conferences, and Brown Recluses

So this past weekend was fantastic! I mean, General Conference always is but as a missionary, it's super neat and interesting to listen to the talks. And it flies by so quickly too! Conference has never gone by that fast before. One of my favorite talks was Elder Holland's and me and Sister Shelley actually decided that it would be a good talk to have one of our investigators listen to. If Sister Shelley and I can't inspire them to take the next step necessary for baptism, surely Elder Holland can. I also liked the story about the 25 words to your family and decided to do that so here are the 25 words I would send to you:

Laugh. Smile. Temple is worth any sacrifice. Share gospel with everyone. Atonement is real. Love. Have courage. Stay obedient. Pursue Dreams. Hope. I love you.

So cherish those 25 words in case I die or something, haha. Actually, you really never know in Marion. Our apartment had human remains in it like two months before we moved in. So...yeah...

In between Conference Sessions on Saturday, we had a baptism! Joe and Brandon Joan (father and son) were baptized. It was an amazing experience. Those two are just fantastic. Joe is such a great guy and the Spirit is so strong when he speaks or even when you just look at him. As he puts it "the ghost is already in him". He's sweet and now his wife (who is already a member) is looking forward to the day that they can both be sealed in the temple for time and all eternity.

In between Conference Sessions on Sunday, we had a neat experience. We were out tracting and trying to follow up on some potential investigators when Sister Shelley turns to me and says "so there's this man who lives in a house over there and we've already tried him twice and he's not interested in the Gospel cause he's a soldier and seen too many men pray and never get an answer from God and we've tried him twice but he just doesn't want the Gospel but I really feel like we should try again." So I was like 'well heck yes, let's do it!" So we get to his door and knock and he answers and Sister Shelley says "sorry for bothering you but my new companion, Sister Briscoe, has a message for you." I was like 'ummmm, so I don't know you but I want to read you some scriptures" and I read the story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehis who were murdered as the prayed and I also read him the story of King Lamoni's father and finding out if there was a God or not. And eventually, after we talked for a bit, he became interested and we are going to go back and teach him more! It was awesome because when I was baring my testimony, he started tearing up and I started tearing up.

Also, there are all these spiders in our apartment and I always kill them because Sister Shelley is terrified of them. The other day I caught one to use in an object lesson for the Titensor's and I showed them the spider and they were like "I'm pretty sure that's a brown recluse" so after putting it in this little magnifying bug box that they have, they did indeed conclude that it was a brown recluse and I said "oh, our apartment is full of them". They just looked at me incredulously and asked "how are you not dead yet?" So I'm living in an apartment infested with very poisonous spiders but I'm not worried. They aren't very aggressive.

Anyways, the work is going forward, slowly but surely and with a little more effort, Me and sister Shelley can get this stone rolling a bit faster, haha.


I love you all,

Sister Diana Briscoe

Missions are tough stuff....April Fools, they are awesome :)

So guess what? Missions are hard. Apparently Marion is a particularly tough area too. Not only is it a common stop for drug lords and gangsters (heroine is Marion's economy) but the people here just do not want to hear the Gospel. Well that's just too dang bad for them because I'm going to give it to them whether they want it or not...of course I'll do it in the most loving way...haha.

The Marion Branch is tiny. There are about 400 members...that's right, it may seem like I'm contradicting myself right now but hang on and give me a chance to explain...there are 400 members in Marion but only about 30 show up for church every Sunday so it's still just a little branch. In fact, Marion Branch is one of the oldest Branches in church history. Elder L. Tom Perry served his mission in Ohio and he said that if Marion Branch ever became a Ward, he'd come back to do it himself. But apparently there is a curse on Marion. My District Leader told me a story about the early Mormon Pioneers coming through Marion to go West and there was this mob that came and attacked them and in the chaos a little boy was trampled under a wagon. So the father of that little boy "dusted his shoes off" at Marion and cursed it so the church would never grow here. Well, guess what? I have two investigators getting baptized this coming Saturday that would beg to differ. The church will always grow where there is faith and determination. It's hard..it really is, but faith comes before miracles.

So there is a CiCi's pizza place here and the owners are less active members but they are still super sweet and let us eat there for free. It's awesome. I'm totally going to get fat while I'm here so I'm grateful I'm not spending my entire mission in the U.S. I'm going to be grateful to walk or bike everywhere in Denmark.

Unfortunately, I don't really have much to say about new investigators because we really haven't had a chance to teach them. All our appointments with them fell through and that was a big disappointment. But it happens and so you just buck up and get a knocking. Knock and it shall be opened unto you....most of the time. Other times people spend 40 minutes scolding you and you try to listen and talk to them but it's hard cause they refuse to open their door but they still are determine to talk to you.

So Easter was great here. We ate breakfast at the Titensors. I love the Titensors!

Not only do they come with us to appointments that fall through but they also stop by the post office and pick up packages from my family that my father tells them to get ;) (love you Far). They are an amazing family and then we had dinner at the Detillion's. They are also great and Sister Detillion's name is Diana so everyone was calling her Diana and that threw me for a loop. She knows a lady in the ward in the area next to ours that is from Denmark! so she is going to try to set something up where I might be able to meet her or just speak to her over the phone in Danish. That'd be awesome!

Also, I am so grateful for the Atonement and it's strengthening power. Not only can it heal our sorrows, make us clean, and give us peace but it can also aid us when we are struggling and need an extra little boost of strength. We met a lady out tracting who is a great example of the strengthening power of the Atonement. We knocked on her door at about 8pm and she opened it and immediately two little kids jumped out and hugged us and were very excited to see us. The little girl had down syndrome and the little boy had another disorder (I forget the name) but she just shared with us what a blessing they were and how some days it's really hard but how she just goes and prays and teaches her kids how to pray too. We didn't get a chance to share our message with her but we definitely shared our testimonies and she did the same. It was great and the two little kids were amazing spirits sent to a great home where their parents not only take care of them but also cherish and love them. I meet a lot of great people like that. Like this old lady named Ruth who just immediately let us and hugged us and talked to us about her career as a teacher a long time ago. Not all these people are very interested in hearing the Gospel but they sure are nice.

Oh so funny story, I have to tell you all about this 90 year old couple in our Branch: the Grangers (yes, I thought of Hermoine too). Anyways, we went to visit them and Sister Granger had to stop and say "oh ow, my back really hurts" and then her husband says "oh stop complaining and do some situps, I bet you can't do situps now." and then she just gave him this disapproving look and get on her back, makes me hold her feet and then starts doing situps! And I was just staring at her in disbelief. I was very impressed. I want to be like her when I get to be 90.

Well, I'm going to go. Just remember that the Gospel is true and just take a moment and pause and ask yourself "where would I be if I didn't know that God was my Heavenly Father and that Christ loves me?" Just think about that for  a good long while.......ok good! Now go out there and share what you know with someone else! They are children of God too. They are struggling. They are lonely. And YOU can help them. YOU have a restored knowledge of the Gospel. YOU know about the Atonement and how it can bring peace and comfort. Why are you still reading this? Find someone and bear your testimony to them, you're wasting time!

I love you all :)
Sister Diana Briscoe