Manuel

WHAT A WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!

That is funny, because I made Grandma's apple cinnamon cake TOO! haha. There was a family in the ward that was without lights and there little girl didn't have a birthday cake... so we made one on our break :) It was suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper delicious. I will always love the fudge frosting! Wow it sounds like the yard has changed so much! You are starting school again?! You can doooooooooooo it! Habla conmigo en espanol para que pueda practicar. Okay so Mission has been good :) I love working with Sister Cortes she just makes me laugh all the time. We are laughing all day while we are working and that is what I love. It is going to be a good transfer. I don't have too much time but I loved the Relief Society broadcast. Were you all able to watch it? I was sitting there and thinking how grateful I am because around the world, I have friends and family that I know are sitting and listening to the prophets too :) I am so blessed to have family that loves and cherishes the word of God. I don't know if I told you all but Manuel - my favorite Hispanic grandpa from Brownsville - quit smoking and got baptized! He also received the Priesthood and is going to the temple in a year! I know God's hand is in this work. I love you all sooooooooooooooooooooo much! I am praying for you! Sister Bricker

Sister Cano is awesome. She makes the spiciest food ever. I practically used a whole carton of sour cream on my dinner!

I know it was a tender mercy from Him to let me come to Edinburg to see this great event. I know that their family was a big reason for why I came here

Mom what a good email!!! Thank you, I loved it! Tell Carlos hello and I will need to practice my Spanish with him when I get back :) haha. WOW THAT IS SO COOL ABOUT YOUR FRIEND!!!!!! I hope things go well, I will pray for her! You are such an awesome missionary mom and I know that is definitely one of the reasons you are getting so many blessings. I know she'll love the Book of Mormon! WHAT KYLIE TURNED EIGHT?!?! ARE YOU SURE?! HAHA I think I've just been in denial that little sassy Kylie is growing up :O I thought of her on her bday _ I'll definitely send something her way. THIS WEEK WAS GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAT! VERONICA AND ISAAC GOT MARRIED SATURDAY VERONICA, RICARDO, AND ISAAC JR GOT BAPTIZED SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ...and in other news I'M BEING TRANSFERRED AGAIN! HAHA CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?! Okay so on Saturday we biked and worked and biked and worked and then came home to shower :) Then we went to Veronica to help her get things ready for the wedding. She looked beautiful. We went to the church to get things ready - we just had it in the Relief Society room. It was super simple but very beautiful. They made their vows and then the Bishop let people come up to give speeches. All the family had been talking about how they had been waiting for this day and they were so glad that it was here. Veronica was soooooo happy :) I loved it. I got up and talked about how their wedding really strengthened my testimony that miracles to happen and everything is possible with God. I know God will bless them for living that commandment. Then the Bishop gave a bit of council and we took pictures :) I'll send you some! Yesterday they all were baptized... it was beautiful to see the whole family do it together. Next month, the Dad will get baptized too :) God is so good. I know it was a tender mercy from Him to let me come to Edinburg to see this great event. I know that their family was a big reason for why I came here. I was really shocked that God would move me again haha... like seriously. I have been transferred every single transfer (except for Brownsville)... I'm still trying to figure out what God wants me to learn from all of this changing. Sister Reese asked me "do you think it is a pattern for the rest of your life?" She said a lot of times, what we do/learn here prepares us for the rest of our lives... I'm still thinking about it. I DO know that God has a reason for me going to Mission East and I'm excited to find it. I love you all soooooooo much! Oh and we had a Mexican Independence day party!!!!!!! It was super fun and the food was yummy :) Pictures to come! LOVE SISTER BRICKER

Willie is going to be baptized soon. We just found him walking down the street. There are prepared people everywhere.

I went through my first pair of shoes!!

I wish I could record every little detail for you because it was awesome

WELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL HELLO THERE!!!!!!!!!!!! You had stake conference too? We had conference here in the McAllen Stake, it was really powerful. That is awesome that they are promoting mormon.org. It is such a good website. It will be a really good way to get people in Western Washington interested. My mouth drooled a little bit when I heard chocolate zucchini cake!!! Freeze some for me!!!! THIS WEEK HAS BEEN SUCH A HUGE WEEK OF MIRACLES!!!! GOD REALLY HAS HELPED THE PEOPLE HERE SO MUCH. Man I wish I could just record everything and every little detail for you because it was awesome. Thank you for praying for our one investigator and her boyfriend. I was super stressed about it during the beginning of the week. We went on Wednesday to do service for them and help clean the house. I think that softened her boyfriend's heart a lot to see us come and help them. Later, he was asking us questions like "How long are you out here?" "Is this really all you do all day long is helping people?" "Does the church pay for you to be here?" I think when he asked us that and we told him that we have to pay our own way to be out here (or in my case my lovely parents and grandparents! thank you!) it really softened his heart. I think he started to really see that we aren't out here for any other motive than to help him and his family. He said "tell you what, to repay you for your service I want to have you over for a carne asada this weekend." ... Then the next day, we went over for a lesson. Our investigator was at the doctor with her girls. It was just the boyfriend and the boys. We taught the boys tithing and chastity to get them ready for their baptism. The boyfriend really liked the concept of tithing (surprising right? haha usually that is the one everyone hates). We invited him to live it with his family and he said "yeah it makes sense!" So we were like if he is going to live the law of tithing, we need to invite him to be baptized! Haha it was the most random but miracle lesson. During that lesson his heart changed from night to day. He said he would marry his girlfriend and be baptized too!!!!!!!!!! As he was talking about buying the certificate and everything I just wanted to cry. I couldn't believe that just a week before he absolutely refused... and trying to reason with them was out of the picture. We tried to get them to say one good thing about each other and they couldn't. I felt like I was Moses on a mission, knowing where I needed to be and who I had to lead there ... and then talking to the boyfriend was like running into the red sea. I had no idea what to do or where to go... but in that lesson, the Lord parted the red sea for us and now her boyfriend wants to get married and wants to make their family work. This week we are making some wedding cakes :) :) :) We are just going to have a small ceremony and a BBQ and the Bishop is going to marry them. WOOOOOOOOO! It is also the Mexican independence day so we are going to have a big ward fiesta this weekend too. WOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DIOS ES BUENO! I wish I could write more but I have got to go. I love you all! Thank you for your consistency in writing me Mom! I love reading your emails every Monday. Say hello to all my friends :D

COMPLETEY SOAKED coming from our appt.

Birthday Breakfast (this picture is from July)

I need to "be still" and know that God is going to take care of the miracles.

Well hellllllllllllllo there!  This email might have to be a little short because it is Tuesday and we've got to get out to work... but that is exciting about your zucchini!  Hopefully you have some before the frost comes... mmm chocolate zucchini bread!  Yayyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!  I'm so excited you are coming down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It will be super fun to show you around.  Right now my going home date is the 25th of January...whether that will change or not, I don't know...  the only possibility would be that President would want me to go home earlier (but I hope not!).

Yay I'm glad you got the pictures!  :)  I need to take more with the people we are teaching.  This week was good.  I think I've been stressing myself out a little too much.  I need to "be still" and know that God is going to take care of the miracles.  Thank you for sending that to me.  God is definitely trying my patience and faith.  I don't think He ever stops working on you to become better :)  I thank Him everyday for my loving and supportive family!!!!!!!!!!!  I know that your prayers help me so much.

Okay well I'm off for another good week!  oh yeah p.s. I was sick of long hair and so one of the sisters gave me an A line hair cut and I love it!

Have a goooooooooooooooooooood week!

Love,
Sister Bricker

Can I just say... I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WOULD LOVE TO SHOW YOU AROUND! That would be SOOOOOOOOOOO awesome! You can use all your great Spanish skills Mom :) Wait are you serious?! That would be too cool. Are you talking about like picking me up here while I'm still a missionary (like January 25th)? Or coming back later in the year to visit?

Hey speaking of Brother Van Leishout! One of our ward members here served with him in Korea! We were talking at the dinner table and he was telling stories of his mission and he said "...and Elder VanLeishout" and I was like "wait a second that is not a very common name..." and we found out it was him! So ask Brother Van Leishout if he knows an Elder Merwinn from his mission :)

Those Costco mats are heavenly! That is what we used when we handed out samples :) So I bet they are super nice for your feet. Hey can you believe it is September already?!?! How crazy is that.

This week was ANOTHER WEEK OF MIRACLES. God is just pouring them down here in Edinburg. Can I just say... I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I feel so happy everyday... no matter how exhausted... or how much I feel like I could sleep for a whole year without waking up... I know that I have the privilege to do the Lord's work 24/7.

This week we had a three day training about the missionary program - how to help people recognize the Holy Ghost, how to help them gain their own testimonies... etc. Everything I learn here I know is just going to help me so much more the rest of my life. There really is no better use for my time right now then what I am doing here. The mom and her 5 kids are doing awesome. Her boyfriend right now doesn't want to get married. She said she is willing to move out so she can get baptized. THAT TAKES COURAGE AND FAITH IN GOD. She started crying though because she feels alone in this decision :( Her family doesn't really support her and she doesn't really have many friends here. We are doing our best to help the ward become her family - as it should be. Hermana Acosta invited her over to her house this week for a lesson and you should have seen the look on her face of surprised and excited and "really you invited ME?" We told her that we have been praying for her every day and she told us "Ya se Hermanas... yo siento sus oraciones." That was such a testimony builder for me that she already knew we were praying for her and she FELT it. One of the Elders told us "wow she looks soooooooooo much happier from the first day we met her." Yay for the changing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

We are teaching some other really great people too that came to church out of nowhere. We are also riding bikes and hitching rides all the time because we have NO MILES. I just bought new tubes (because...everything is bigger in Texas... including the spikey plants haha) and within the first day they were flat AGAIN haha... so I just need some tires of STEEL or something. I don't know how the Elders do it. I love biking though...it is my time to think/meditate.

Okay I have got to go but I LOVE YOU TOO MAMA! GRACIAS POR LA CANCION!!!!! HASTA LUEGOOOOOOOO

I need like FIVE HOURS TO EMAIL YOU BECAUSE THERE IS SOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH TO SAY!

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!!!! AYANA IS GOING ON A MISSION!!!!!!!!!! I thought she was already married haha. That is super cool - England?! I can totally see her going there. She is so positive and upbeat, she will work miracles there. Wow I can't believe all their kids are on missions right now... blessings for them :)

Yay!!!!!! A reunion that I'll actually be there for! That is super exciting. I'm really excited because I've always wanted to see the Hill Cumorah Pagent. AND one of my old companions lives over there - Sister Carlos :) AND it will be cool to see some of where Jon served on his mission. I wish you could come and meet all the people down here. You would love them. All of our investigators right now are a HOOT. That is really cool that "I" visited church with you. Hopefully she can continue up in Auburn. My mouth watered a little bit when you said that the fruit is in :) My jaw dropped a little bit when you said they played hockey in the garage haha.

OKAY SO LET ME JUST TELL YOU RIGHT NOW... THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME AND SUPER MILAGROSO!!!!!!!!!!!!! LLENA DE MILAGROS!!!!!!!!!!!! We were meditating and thinking about who God has ready for baptism in September in our area... and we felt three. No matter where you are as a missionary, nothing is going to happen without miracles from God. I have tried many days to do this work on my own in my own way and it doesn't work. Me, my companion and my district fasted so that we could have the faith necessary to bring those three people to the waters of baptism. It was rough because we were on bikes that day in 100 degree weather (don't worry we drank plenty of water! and put on sunscreen!) but this week has been the BEST. I know that it was from our sacrifice, faith and diligence that we were able to see miracles.

The mom and five kids all came to church as a family. Luckily the Deerwesters trained me on what to do when you have a million kids. We reserved a whole bench for them towards the back. We brought lots of coloring books :) Somehow during sacrament meeting I had four kids crawling all over me trying to do this and that - it was like my own personal zoo but I loved it because I looked over and the mom was just listening contently to the speakers. It was on how families can be together forever :) I think she liked it! The kids loved it and said afterwards "do we have to wait all the way until next Sunday to go to church?!" YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

Other miracle! (fyi I need like FIVE HOURS TO EMAIL YOU BECAUSE THERE IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH TO SAY! BE PREPARED FOR CHATTER BOX SISTER BRICKER WHEN I SEE YOU SOMEDAYYYYYYY) Saturday night I felt like we should go contacting... we had kind of a disagreement about it but... ahhhhhhhh okay time is up! Miracle = finding R____. He wants to be baptized - came to church the next day and loved it '\


I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

When I invited him to be baptized he TOTALLY FAINTED

Edinburg is a super rich area but I love our apartment. The wards ARE AWESOME HERE... they were all soooo excited to have sister missionaries and we have a lot of people that want to come on splits YAY

We met with the Leinweber family for dinner. After the lesson we asked if they knew anyone that would be blessed by this message and they said "yeah our next door neighbor, we were thinking about inviting them over for dinner." yayyyyyyyy! Missionary work is so much better with members.

We met this kid named Jacob and had a lesson with him... and when I invited him to get baptized he TOTALLY FAINTED right there in front of us... haha I would like to say that he felt the spirit, but I'm pretty sure he must have been on drugs or something.

The work still moves on :) God is good and He is teaching me how to be humble continually. He is teaching me how to be TEACHABLE. I am learning a lot from Sister Reese. I know that I am here so that one day I can say that I did my best to help every brother and sister here to be able to make it back to God. I want us all to be there. This life is too short to make wrong choices and spend eternity thinking about it... I know it is through Christ we truly are changed and can change. Sometimes life feels like you are running up hill against the wind... but you just have to keep going... like the train " I think I can I think I can."

Life is good my dear family!!!!!!!!!!1

I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUU!

It was great to see the reality of this message... from tears/stress/anxiety to smiles/peace in 30 minutes.

This week was CRAZY. Well on Monday Sister Feito and I found out some surprising news. President Trayner called us after planning and told us that BOTH OF US ARE LEAVING MCALLEN CENTRAL AREA. Sister Feito is going to Laredo North (my first area) and I am going to Edinburg to "whitewash" with Sister Reese. I was SHOCKED. Haha I thought for sure I was staying... I don't know what it is with me staying only a transfer in one area? "Whitewash" is when they change BOTH of the missionaries at the same time. So I will be new and Sister Reese will be new to the area. My heart was beating super hard when he told me the news. I couldn't sleep that night because I was nervous/anxious. It is funny because I was just telling the sisters the other day that I never wanted to whitewash... and here we are :) haha. It is going to be hard but I am excited. I know the members in that ward have always wanted sister missionaries so it will be good.

We saw some really big MILAGROS this week. I went on exchanges with the other sisters. We were just leaving from a lesson with a part member family and the wife pulls us aside and says "I really want you to go visit my friend, do you have time to go right now?" We said "Of course!!" Her son took us down the street and she let us in right away. She sat down and immediately started crying. She began to tell us the stress and hurt she had in her heart... we said a prayer and started to talk about the Atonement and that for the Atonement to take effect in our lives, we need to follow Him through living His gospel. She and all of her three daughters accepted to be baptized in September. After they all prayed about the date, she was smiling. She said she felt "paz, tranquilidad" and she was smiling again. It was great to see the reality of this message... from tears/stress/anxiety to smiles/peace in 30 minutes. Truly only the power of God can bring that lasting peace. Yo se esto es verdadero con todo mi corazon.

Thank you for all of the pictures! It was soooooooooooooo good to see what you have been up to! I especially liked Anna and the goat... and the one of you and Dad together at Rainier is sooooooooo pretty! What a beautiful mother I have :) :)

Hey Nicki is going to WA!!!!! She said if they have time that she is going to see if you want to go to Olympic with them :) You should gooooooooooo if you can! Her family is super nice.

LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!

Now I am able to turn to the Lord fully and say "just tell me what to do and I'll do it."

Mom that is the sweetest poem I've ever read!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was really good. I love the picture of the vine in the background. I'm sure Dad loved it, along with his re-arranged tools :) When I heard you were both in the hot tub... I was like "wait what hot tub?!" but then I remembered Dad's emails that he sent. That is cool! Congrats to my favorite parents ever for making it 34 years and raising some CRAZY CHILDREN!!!!!!!!! You are both such a good example of enduring even when things get hard - so I know it can be done :)

My sprinting is going well!!!! The days when I remember to pray for diligence are the best. It all starts with the prayer. This week has been ONE OF THE MOST HUMBLING WEEKS OF MY MISSION! Things were going so well. I thought for sure four people were going to be baptized from our area this month. We had a lesson with one that was going really well... but then went really bad because of something that was said by a member. She didn't come to church and we don't know how she is feeling about continuing towards baptism. We taught the law of chastity to another investigator this week and she was fine because her and her boyfriend are going to get married next week. She called 30 minutes before church saying that she wants a break from the lessons and wants to pause everything to do her own thing. It was so sad. She has gone to church twice and wanted to get baptized ASAP... it is amazing how quickly Satan works on people. I feel like everything crashed here in the matter of a week. I cried through sacrament meeting - and you know me, I don't cry easy! I just love them so much and I wanted their kids to have the peace that comes from the gospel.

BUT I know that there is something to be learned from every trial. I think it was a great humbling moment. Now I am able to turn to the Lord fully and say "just tell me what to do and I'll do it...I don't care what it is, I'll do it." That is when I can truely be a efficient servant.

BUT GOOD NEWS!!!!!! I met someone that just moved from Monterrey with her hijito . La conocimos mientras estabamos caminando. Ella estaba sacando la basura. Ella quiere acercarse otra vez con Dios y ha asistido iglesia con Pentacostes y Bautista... y ella vino ayer a nuestra iglesia. Ella le gusto mucho!!!! Ella dijo "wow cada cosa es bien orginizada, me gusta." Y tambien vendra hoy para una noche de hogar (fhe in spanish) en la capilla esta noche! She is awesome!

So we went on exchanges for the first time in FOREVER!

Never in my life would I think that at 9:00 pm it would be hot enough outside to make sweat drip down my back. The heat is crazy but we only have ONE month left! Yay!!!!! God is helping me a lot. Saturday we were eaten super bad by mosquitos... I think I had probably 30 on each leg haha.

Mosiah 4:11 is how I feel :)

LIFE IS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD! I LOVE YOU MOM AND EVERYONE ELSE WHO READS THIS!!!!!!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT IS ALREADY AUGUST!

Have a good week!!!!!!!!! Enjoy your summer! haha and tomatoes mom

p.s. We went home teaching with the Stake President Wilson and it was really cool! He reminded me of grandpa Palmer :) :)

This week was AWESOME and full of MILAGROS!

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!! That totally sounds like you are all having so much fun! That is awesome... except from your foot part :( I wonder what it was... m.s.?! Haha just kidding. Well maybe someday I will be able to diagnose you but not today haha. It is good you are starting to feel better though! It is still kind of frustrating to not know what it was.... like when I got that weird lung thing. It went away, but I still wanted to know what in the world was causing the pain.

Was Whitney at the reunion?

Okay this week was AWESOME and full of MILAGROS! We had the mini missionaries with us. They were super fun and all excited about knocking doors and teaching lessons. They have such powerful testimonies already... I wish I knew at their age! This week we had interviews with President Trayner. It was really good. He told me that I'm at the part of my mission where I need to be SPRINTING. When you start out, it is kind of at a slow jog, then you get faster and faster and now I'm at the sprinting stage of my mission. This is where I take all the things I've learned and apply them to help more people receive their own conversion. It was good motivation. This whole week I have been going strong with strong desires to work work work. I love it. I can't believe this transfer is almost already over.

Two of our investigators came to church on Sunday :) :) :) They should be getting baptized in the upcoming weeks. She said she liked it a lot better than last time. It is a super big change from the Catholic church so that has been a struggle for her. She says though that she just has had this emptiness that hasn't been filled... and that is why she wants to make the change.

The other investigator...the hippie lady who is so funny... she read the whole Word of Wisdom chapter on her own in class and QUIT COFFEE ON HER OWN! Wooo hoooo! We had a lesson with her and she just seemed super down and she told us because she had been off of coffee for two days. I talked to her yesterday on the phone though and she said her withdrawl is totally over now and she feels fine! Yay for blessings from God. I wish you could just meet all these awesome people! My weak emails just don't do them justice! The Lord has been blessing us to find lots of families this transfer!

Well I just want to say that I learned that when we pray for things... the Lord really helps us out... basic right? But sometimes I forget to pray about the little things thinking that it really won't make a difference - but it DOES. It is so funny, I'm a missionary, you think I'd know that by now... but we keep learning something new every day... usually more simple than profound.

LOVE YOU MOM AND EVERYONEEEEEEEEEEEE! HAVE A GOOD WEEK!