Shoot them down... with baptism

Okay, so I was in a lesson with this 15 year old girl who we've been teaching for a little bit but we're pretty comfortable around her and we were talking about how she is a champion at shooting rifles and it's super impressive and I told her "Oh man, I wish I was as good as a missionary as you are a shooter. Then we could shoot everybody down." and Sister Bergloff just looks at me like I've lost my mind and so I say quickly "with baptism! I meant shoot them down with baptism" Yes, it was probably not the best thing but that is what happens when I teach lots of lessons on an empty stomach. Empty stomach = empty brain for me. 

We went on exchanges this past week and I was with this wonderful sister named Sister Webb and Sister Webb and I were going to see these people in her area and she warned me to just be prepared because they were a little crazy. Well we get to the house and I meet this crazy lady named Mama Daisy and she is super chatty and talkative and recites poetry but finally I get her to be quiet and we start reading 2 Nephi 4 with her. After we read it, I ask her "how did that make you feel?" and she all of the sudden gets glassy eyed, and says "oh, this is a bad spell." and then starts shaking and her eyes roll back and she's foaming at the mouth and so I told Sister Webb "turn her on her side so she doesn't choke and I'll call 911!" So after I called 911, Mama Daisy was completely fine...except....she wasn't Mama Daisy anymore. Turns out Mama Daisy has multiple personality disorder. Her other personality is not a nice, sweet poetry reciting person. So, Sister Webb and I decided it probably was not the best idea for us to be there and after the paramedics arrived, we left very quickly. that was the first time in my life I've met someone with multiple personalities. 

Also, after we got home from exchanges, we found our apartment infested with BEES! and I said "they don't allow bees in here." (anyone get that reference?) But ya, we had over 50 dead bees and a lot of live ones in our apartment but it's all good. Our awesome maintenance man took care of them. 

Cool story for you! So we were tracting this random street and I was knocking most of the doors and one door I knocked on this lady opens it and is squinting at our nametags and I'm just thinking 'oh great, here we go, she's going to yell at us.' and she did, but it wasn't the yelling I was used to. she yells "They brought the SISTERS Back!!! Yes!" and she's all excited to see us and hugs us and we have no clue who she is so I just point blank asked her "who are you?" turns out she is a less active member who joined about 5 years ago and she likes Sisters better than Elders and is really excited for us to come back and teach her the new member lessons. 

Those are the fun stories for the week. I'll try to send some pictures. 

The first picture is me eating an Amish cinnamon pickle. Actually pretty good. Those Amish know exactly what they are doing, they are all awesome. 

The second picture is us and that less active lady that was so happy to see us.

We're safe, now that we're back in Marion....said no one, ever

That is what my lovely new companion Sister Bergloff said as we pulled back into our sketchy apartment complex after a night of wandering around a terrifying apartment building in a little town called Upper Sandusky. That was a fun day, that was Friday and it was just dumping buckets of rain here and it was really cold too and Sister Bergloff decided to wear these very cute shoes...that were leather...so they were ruined but she had an awesome attitude and was just laughing and smiling even though she had ruined her expensive Puma shoes.

Sister Bergloff and I are pretty much the same person and it's awesome because we have way too much fun together. We're both from Colorado, we both did some school in Colorado before transferring to BYU and we're both younger Sister Missionaries. and we're both full of 'green rage'. We seriously think the same way on everything. The only difference between us is she is more patient and Christ-like than me.

Anyways, I'm going to send lots of pictures because I talked on the phone yesterday and I can't think of anymore cool stories that I think people would like so enjoy these pictures!

This is me and Sister Twitchell. I went on exchanges down to a town called Marysville and she was my companion for 24 hours. She is awesome. Her little brother is going to Colorado Springs on his mission. So anyone who reads this who lives there, look out for an Elder Twitchell. While I was on exchanges with her, we were able to find about 4 new investigators in her area.

The second picture is me and Sister Bergloff the day she got her. We are holding what are known as Golden Bears. There this type of lemonade and apparently they are a big deal in the mission here. I did not know that and so when one of the APs was passing them out to the new missionaries, he asked me to tell them how good it was and I told him I'd never had one so he immediately opened on and made me drink it right then.










Here's a picture of me at the zoo :)








This is me and a member of our branch, Sister Sutter and her cats. Her cats are so fat it seriously looks like someone took a soccer ball and stuffed them inside of the cats. I just had to get a picture with them. Sister Sutter is amazing and feeds us every wednesday and is always willing to help missionaries out.




This is me and a member of our branch, Sister Sutter and her cats. Her cats are so fat it seriously looks like someone took a soccer ball and stuffed them inside of the cats. I just had to get a picture with them. Sister Sutter is amazing and feeds us every wednesday and is always willing to help missionaries out.

This picture is of me and Sister Shelley and then 4 giant Saint Bernards that were NOT friendly at all. I had to stop Sister Shelley from sticking her hand in to pet them cause even though they looked all fluffy and cuddly, I just had a feeling that they were not that nice and it's a good thing I did cause their owner came out and yelled "Whatever you do, do not pet them! they will latch on and not let go!"

So I think that is all of the pictures and stories that I can think of for now. I am so grateful to be serving as a missionary and I am so proud and happy to come from a family of missionaries.

EMMY! You're going to BRAZIL!! I am so proud of you. That is just crazy and wonderful and amazing. and I won't lie, I'm slightly jealous ;) you are going to be a wonderful missionary and I love you!

I love all you and keep up the fantastic things you are all doing

Ohhhh...hiii...ohhh

So transfers were this past week and I am still in Marion Ohio, which is good because I really want to see Tim and Vicki baptized. They are fantastic people and we had a special fast to get people to set a date for baptism because we had no one with a baptismal date in this entire zone. So, this Thursday is the goal to have Tim and Vicki set a specific date to be baptized.
Anyways, at transfers, we got another Sister! I'm co-training her to help Sister Shelley out. So one day Sister Shelley is training, the next day I'm training. It's fun. Her name is Sister Bergloff, she is from Highlands Ranch, CO and she is here in Ohio waiting for her visa to go to Brazil. Funny, right?
It's nice having another sister cause we can go into any house we want to and it's a lot easier to go on splits with sisters in the ward. We actually went on splits this past Saturday. Sister Shelley took Sister Bergloff and I went with this super sweet sister from our branch, Sister Vought. Sister Vought and I visited Melva and June (the two super old ladies in pink from last time) and we taught a lot about baptism and the importance of prayer and I again invited them to be baptized and asked them to pray about it and this time I asked June. She said she didn't think she could pray out because she couldn't think of all the words and felt embarrassed. I promised her that as soon as she said the words "Heavenly Father", the words would just come and she prayed and it was beautiful. I then asked them to be baptized June 15 and they said....YES!  So those two have a set date for baptism but they apparently don't count as being 'on date' according to our zone leaders because they haven't been to church yet. But they're old and dying and I don't know how on earth they'll make it to church! June actually prayed for their health to come back so she and Melva could come to church with us. I'm excited about that.
We went to the zoo today for a Zone P-day activity and that was a lot of fun. Our branch mission leader and his wife, Brother and Sister Sutter, were so kind to take us down all the way and then drive us back. They are a wonderful couple and we're very blessed to have them .
Let's see, not much else has happened since this past Wednesday.
We had stake conference yesterday and it was this special broadcast from Salt Lake for some of the Eastern Stakes. That was neat. Elder Hales and President Uchtdorf spoke and that was a treat. Here are some things I took away from it:
It doesn't matter where we serve (in the church or on missions) but that we serve.
Our testimonies grow stronger when we share it with others.
We need to be converted to the Lord and there are three things we can do to make sure we're converted:
1. CTR stands for choose the right and also, Current Temple Recommend. Always be worthy to hold a temple recommend.
2. Study the scriptures regularly
3. Talk to your Father in Heaven daily. He is your Father and He loves you and wants to hear from you.
Also, I found an awesome Ensign article from 2006 that was about Denmark and there was this great quote from President Andersen that I really liked: "Missionary work is a natural result of our own conversion" We all need to work on being more fully converted because missionary work does not yet come naturally for a lot of people (it certainly hasn't for me). So work on your personal conversion and missionary work will just come to you.

I love you all so much!
Sister Diana Briscoe

I am still alive and still in Ohio.

So sorry everyone for not sending an email in forever. The internet was down at the library for a while but now I can email and update everyone on all my many adventures, haha. Great...now I can't think of anything cool.

Well we're teaching this awesome older couple named Tim and Vicki. They are 57 years old and have been sweethearts ever since they were born. Seriously, they were born around the same time and their parents were friends so they would have play dates together all the time. Then when they were in the 6th grade, the play dates turned into real dates and then they got married and now they are blessing me and Sister Shelley with their awesome humor and love of Christ and interest in His Gospel and His Church. Oh funny story with them.
So missionaries in this mission are supposed to make breakfast on Sunday mornings for investigators or less actives to get them to come to church and we decided to make it for Tim and Vicki cause they were coming to church this past Sunday. So Sister Shelley makes this beautiful tray laden with bacon and muffins and hot cocoa mix and we pull up to their house and it's raining. I pull out my umbrella to protect the food and get out of the car with the tray in one hand and the umbrella in another. Tim comes out to see if he can help and I foolish and pridefully say "oh no, it's all good. I got it." and then spill the tray all over the wet concrete. Tim was doubled over laughing hysterically. Ya, I felt terrible. and I made a pitiful picture just standing there in the rain, with the food all around me. Tim and Vicki still came to church which was awesome.

Now for the pictures:

The Titensors and Sister Shelley were super sneaky and threw me a birthday party with lots of cupcakes and cake and ice cream. Ya, I'm getting fat but oh well

There is also a picture of these two super old ladies that we're teaching, named Melva and June. They are very old and are both on oxygen. They are super sweet. We actually told them about baptism for the dead

and they got super excited cause they can't be baptized right now but maybe after this life...ya, it was an interesting experience inviting someone to be baptized after they die. I also asked Melva to pray and she said she would but because she had had a stroke she couldn't speak very well and she didn't want to and the spirit prompted me and I said "Melva, if you pray right now, I promise you will not stutter and you will be able to say everything you want clearly." and immediately she started praying and didn't mess up once and said everything she wanted to. It was an awesome experience.
And then there is a picture of me with my favorite less active member. Sister Rickard. She is a hoot. She says the craziest things but I love her to death. I also showed her the prom pictures of Emmy and David and she said that Emmy was a knock-out and david looked like a movie star. She also thought david was 19 or 20. So congrats david! you look all old and

mature.
Well I got to go! LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH :)
Sister Diana Briscoe

"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