taking a tumble

One night Sister Coy and I were out with our ward mission leader, Brother Barney. If you don't know Brother Barney (which basically everyone in Chandler does), he's pretty much the sweetest man EVER! He's a little older and everyone loves him---and of course,  he loves everybody back. We went to go and contact a couple of people in our ward, and one of them lived in an apartment complex. We climbed up to the second floor and knocked.
And knocked again.
And rang the doorbell.
No luck. But that's not really too unusual. We determined that he wasn't home and were leaving to go to the next place when Brother Barney fell down the stairs!
I didn't tell you, but Brother Barney is also the kind of person who laughs off everything, and makes a joke of it all.  But when I turned from the sound of the fall, I saw him practically upside-down on the staircase. It was so sad to see him that way! After a split second, he stood up, checked the damage (a few holes in his suit pants), and laughed it off.
Of course, he didn't think much of it, but Sister Coy and I were so sad about it! Watching him limp back to his car was really sad, and the whole rest of the night after he left I couldn't stop thinking about it. I felt literally sick thinking about it.
As we were headed back to the church to load our bikes onto the back of the car, lo and behold, there was Brother Barney--out walking the dogs.  Relief swept over me. We stopped and talked to him, and he was doing just fine.  As we were driving home that night we realized what a tender mercy the Lord provided for us that night!

Obviously, it wasn't a big deal (in fact, his wife said he got two new suits out of it!). But it was to us, and so Heavenly Father assured us that everything was okay and that we didn't need to worry. Some people might not consider that timely appearance a miracle--but I know that God's hand was a part of it!!
And who would've thought that seeing a friendly man walking his dogs late at night would bring so much joy to us?!

"The Lord's tender mercies are the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurance, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Truly, the Lord suits 'his mercies according to the conditions of the children of men.' (D&C 46:15)" 

(Elder Bednar)

Learn more about Brother Barney and Mormons!

cars that start

Okay, so here starts some of the simpler miracles that I've seen since I've been out. This one is one I recorded in my journal the very first day. To make a long story short, I'm just gonna post my journal entry. It's more real and...well, I wrote it about 30 minutes after it happened...

'The last 15 minutes before we had to go in, we decided to street contact around the apartments.  Sister Winterton said the last 15 minutes are the miracle minutes. SO TRUE! God blesses us when we're at the very end and we put forth a full effort! It was pretty deserted outside, and we were both praying for someone to be outside. Then, BAM. 3. We approached them, talked--they gave us an address to come leave a message! They were super nice, and were surprised to see sister missionaries. I hope we can catch them at their home! After that, we were walking back to our apartment and we saw a man and talked to him--Terrin. He was trying to get his motorcycle to work, but it couldn't start. We talked for a couple of minutes, and we offered to say a  prayer with him. So we did! And then afterward, he have us his address. And then, he asked if we recommended anywhere to go to church! And THEN, his motorcycle started less than a minute after we started to leave. It was a miracle!! The Lord's work is beautiful. It's powerful. And yet, its so simple. I love it!!'

I was a pretty pumped missionary, huh? Miracles are all around us. Besides that first miracle, we had two other very memorable times where cars started after a prayer was offered. It is no doubt in my mind due to the prayers--it's SO COOL!! I just love seeing these miracles! Even the people that we talked with recognized that calling upon the Lord certainly brought about the miracle.
I testify that prayers work. I also know that ANYTHING that is important to us, is important to Him. Even if it's just a silly old car. Or a lost key. He is your Father. Nothing will ever change that.

"But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of the soul."2 Nephi 32:9

locker buddies

I'm going to go back in time a little bit, but bear with me. :) It's a pretty sweet story, I have to admit...

So, junior year my dad got stationed in Misawa, Japan........right in the middle of nowhere. I graduated from Edgren High School in 2011, with a class of about 58.  To say the least, we were a pretty tight class and we all knew each other really well. Senior year, I was assigned a locker on the corner of the hallway, right next to a super friendly kid--Xavier Major.  Xavier was the kind of kid that everyone likes--he always had friends around him and a huge smile on his face. I didn't really know him that well from the year before, but being locker buddies, I'd say we got to know each other a little better. Of course, at the end of the year we all graduated and went our separate ways.


Two years later, after deciding to serve a mission (which I talked about in 'china bound'), our mission President informed us that we would begin to use Facebook for proselyting purposes. We were SO excited! We would get to talk to old friends about the gospel--the thing that has brought us so much happiness! After a week of cleaning up my account, I finally began to post and message friends and investigators. On the 23rd of September, I got a random message.......from Xavier Major, of all people!
"Brynnley how are you liking Arizona!?"
I quickly responded, telling him how much I love the work and I love the place. After finding out he was living in Mesa, we talked a little about missionaries--it's hard to live in Mesa and NOT know who the missionaries are.
"My girlfriend is actually Mormon so I've been exploring the church myself."
I was FLOORED.  I sure didn't expect that! How exciting--someone I actually knew was learning about the church! Of course, as a missionary I started asking the typical questions...have you gone to church or read the Book of Mormon or prayed about it? Within a couple of minutes, Xavier and I were discussing the Book of Mormon and how to know if the church really was true. It was such a cool experience to be able to answer his questions and bear my testimony to him! I was really grateful that he knew me well enough to feel comfortable to approach me about it. And who would've thought we'd ever have a conversation like that??At the end of our conversation that day, he said,
"I have a question. Say that I find this is true to me after reading and prayer--what are the steps from there?"
Well, the rest is history. We taught a couple of online discussions and the Elders took it over from there. I was so amazed at the miracle that the Lord performed. I know that it wasn't sheer coincidence that we happened to end up in Misawa Japan with lockers right next to each other--it just wasn't! I couldn't deny that miracle in my life! God puts us where He does in order to help someone else come closer to the Savior--even our lockers may be divinely appointed--you never know! :)

Pray to see with spiritual eyes the miracles that surround you. God has a divine plan for you and for each person on this earth. He loves you! He is aware of the questions and concerns that you have.

Xavior was baptized November 9, 2013

In brainstorming this post, I asked Xavier to send me his side of the story and his testimony. He's seriously SO solid and I really love reading how this simple miracle has changed him--eternally. He's even planning to be sealed to his wife in the Gilbert temple this coming November!!

"I just want to say starting off that we are all part of something bigger then we know. It is crazy to think that back in 2010 when I met Brynnley that she would be the one that helped me on my path of finding a spiritual home. Until my first conversation with Sister Brynnley, I had been wandering around without much purpose and I went to church once every year almost. I hit a rough patch and needed somewhere to turn and one day I felt the urge to message a good friend from highschool that I saw was serving a mission in my area. I thought it was a long shot because I had no idea missionaries could use Facebook. I wasn't ready to officially meet with a missionary in person, so I gave it a shot. Next thing I know we are messaging back and forth and I learned so much in those few days--and for once I felt like everything was going to be okay. Then, fast forward a few months and I am awaiting being baptized; I felt a mix of emotions, but mostly joy. At that moment in time I felt that I made the right choice and I had been guided here all along. The room was packed with friends, family, and even people I just met. I know that this was all part of a bigger plan and that the church is true and that out Savior loves us. I am blessed that I was able to talk with Brynnley that first day and that from that moment on I have been blessed beyond measure. I cannot fully express my gratitude for all the help Brynnley has been on my journey! Thank you!"

finding miss daisey

Miracles are the best!! I know that Heavenly Father often works through someone else to help bring about something good.

Sister Hudson and I were in on Saturday night, planning for the following day. We looked at our weekly goals and hadn't quite reached our referrals. We talked about what would be a good goal for our final day of the week, and after some quick contemplation, we decided we'd go hard or go home--so we set the goal to get 6 referrals (our weekly goal).  Sunday came, and I don't even remember much about it, except that it got to be about 8:00, and we hadn't received ONE referral. With an hour left in the day, we went over to a neighborhood that usually had lots of people out in the evening.
We were biking around, and then we spotted a lady ahead that we had encountered many times. Each of those many times she had given us a grunt or two and a not-so-friendly shoo away. Not the most pleasant of experiences, to be honest. 

As we got closer to her I thought, "There is no way we're going to bother her again. I'm pretty sure she hates our guts by now."

Sister Hudson was my example--she went right up to that woman and had a similar encounter as the last 5 times. But as we were getting shooed away, Sister Hudson asked if there was anyone that this lady knew that might be interested in our message. She responded quickly and dully: 

"There's a cul de sac one street up, across from a park.....they're all interested."

And then she waved us away and went on her way.
We looked at each other. SWEET!!! There were 6 houses on each cul de sac. That's six referrals...why not go contact them all before the week was up??
The first door we knocked on was the home of Alex. He talked to us for awhile, and told us his wife was 'semi-mormon' and invited us to come back and teach her. The rest of the houses we knocked on were pretty friendly--two others also set up return appointments. Successful night!
The best part of that night was what happened in the months afterwards. We were blessed to teach Alex, his wife Daisey (who wasn't a member--just acted like one all the time:), and their three kids, Sarah, Blake, and Jackson. I have no doubt that this family is one that I was sent to the Arizona Tempe mission for--they have a place in my heart, and always will. 

It is just so cool, because we NEVER knock doors--but we wouldn't have found her unless we had gotten this simple referral from a grouchy neighborhood woman!
(....and a funny side note--we ended up teaching this woman's family just a few weeks later. Sharing the gospel really softens hearts I guess!)

What a miracle!! I know that the Lord sent us to Alex and his family through this lady--and I'm just so grateful that my companion had the guts to talk to her at least one more time to get those referrals!

"And thus we see that by small means the Lord can bring about great things." 

(1 Nephi 16:29)

Sister Hudson, Daisey and I

Sarah, Jackson, Daisey, Blake, me, and Sister Jensen

the gates were opened

Okay, quick little miracle. This happened in my last area, where we covered a cute little retirement community. We only had a couple of members who lived in it, and we were going to to try and visit with them this particular summer morning. There were also a few other names that we had received to go and visit that we were going to try and make contact with.
We biked up to the gate, and we tried the code we had received a week earlier.  It didn't work. We switched around the numbers (you know, sometimes the number you remember is just a little off...). Nothing was working. The sun was hot. We looked kind of ridiculous--just sitting outside of this community, kind of hopeless looking.  We even felt a little like we were trying to break in, waiting for a car to maybe drive up and just stealthily follow them in. But, no cars came.

We finally came to terms that we would have to gratify our pride and call the sister we were coming to visit and ask her for the gate code for the second time. We dialed her up---and there was no answer. Great. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be.
As we sat on our bikes deciding if we should wait for a car or just go somewhere else, the gates opened. There were no cars around--not inside the community or outside of the community. It was a miracle!
We knew that God had a purpose for us in that community that morning--I still to this day don't know what it was, but I know there was a reason! Super cool, isn't it?

Heavenly Father has a plan for each of His children and often He uses one of us to help another. He will always make sure you are in the place that He needs you--as long as it's really where He needs you!

"It is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men." Moroni 7:37