Refuse to Stop

Hello friends and fam!! 

Well, first things first, I got transferred! I am so grateful for the past 6 months I've been able to spend in Roanoke. I LOVE that place and those people. I called to say bye to my friend Darrion and he said, "Put me in your heart and take me with you". I think I have the whole city of Roanoke in my heart. 

For my last 6 weeks, I got transferred to Beckley, WV and I am training the SWEETEST new missionary named Sister Chadwick! We are in a trio so my other companion's name is Sister Clow. We were sitting at church on sunday and we get a text from our mission president that told us to leave immediately and to go home and isolate. Apparently one of the new missionaries can't taste or smell so we have to wait till he gets his results back until we can go out again. Ugh! It can be frustrating at times, but it always works out how it needs to. 

I always get a priesthood blessings before I leave for a new area. I was able to get one from a sweet member and he used the word "persevere" like 10 times so I decided to study it and the definition was "be persistent : refuse to stop". I LOVED that. That is what i committed to do these last 6 weeks of my mission. Persevering is best exemplified by the savior. When things got hard, he could've given up. He could've quit. But instead he refused to stop. He chose to be our savior! "They scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men". The savior chose to persevere because he loves us. Choose to persevere because you love the savior! 

Elder Holland said, “You only get one chance to serve a mission; it is your responsibility, your duty, to use it to the fullest; to give every last ounce of energy until you collapse in exhaustion at the end of it.

All the hardships, all the tears, all the hard work will be looked back upon as the best thing you’ve ever done, not because you enjoyed it, not because you baptized everyone, but because you gave everything you had, even when you didn’t think you could, and especially when you didn’t want to.
Live your mission to your fullest, work harder than you’ve ever worked before. Let people know that this is the most important thing in the world to you…
If you do not run until you have nothing left to give, and then keep going anyway; cry and pray and work and sweat and plead until you are so drained that all you can do is turn to the Lord; if you don’t do this, then these people will not come to this joy because of you – their failure to come to Christ will be partially upon your head.
Come out of your mission proud of what you’ve done, and this experience will bless the rest of your life.”

I think everyone can apply this to their lives - not just missionaries! In this life, we should work, sweat, plead, and cry until all we can do is turn to the lord! This is a life of growth and change and experience! As we give our best efforts to the Lord, he will bless us for the rest of our lives and into the eternities! 

I love you! 
Sister Brinton