From the Trenches to the Top! Dan Got TWO JOB Offers!

Okay, So this is written as a letter to my brother who is on an LDS Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 

I put this picture first because it makes me laugh! 


Elder Brown, 

JOB

I have to tell you first things first. The Lord answered Dan's faithful prayer for two offers by the end of the month and gave us two job offers! We know pretty easily which one we would take. It is in Palo Alto, California starting next summer. That is near San Francisco and Stanford University. There is lots of open space to go hiking/walking in the area; its not all developed. We are so excited! We would be really close to Monterey Bay (less than 2 hours) where Dan's family beach house is. So we could stay there. Dan would like the work. It is a really prestigious firm so it would put him in a good place to get into a top 5 MBA school.

No more snow for this little one!!!

EDEN SINGING

You would have loved seeing Eden this week performing with Women's Chorous! She just shines. I love to see her beautiful face and her expressions as she sings with all her heart and soul poured into the music. I especially loved the song by the Beatles "Here comes the sun" that they sang. She played the ukelele on stage for it! 

In her concert the men's chorous also sang. I think you would love being in Men's Chorous. They had a whip on stage for their western songs and the guys were cracking the whip for the "yippie-i-a, yippie-i-o ghost riders in the sky." They also did the famous Jungle Book songs with drums and an accompanying band and lots of hand motions and a big Baloo bear coming out in a grass hula-skirt. It was really entertaining. And thankfully Eden watched Milah for us so we could see the concert. 

INDEXING/ELIMINATE SATAN FROM YOUR LIFE

Mom sent this quote about Satan. 

“Do you young people want a sure way to eliminate the influence of the adversary in your life? Immerse yourself in searching for your ancestors, prepare their names for the sacred vicarious ordinances available in the temple, and then go to the temple to stand as proxy for them to receive the ordinances of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. As you grow older, you will be able to participate in receiving the other ordinances as well. I can think of no greater protection from the influence of the adversary in your life,” said Elder Scott ( Gen Conf Oct 2012).

I found this quote to be profound! Elder Scott promises a "sure way to eliminate the influence of the adversary in your life." That is such strong language.  Amazing!! Prayerfully ponder how you can qualify for this great blessing. We all need Satan's influence eliminated - nightmares, uncleanness, bad choices, depression and more. . . eliminated! 

I thought about what Mom had sent and realized that for me I could start indexing in my spare time instead of spending silly time on things that don't matter as much (e.g. facebook). I have felt an immense power come into my life as I am indexing. I am sure these ancestors (right now I am working on names from Ghanian people) are watching me and so grateful that I am taking the very first step so that they can be saved and accept the gospel of Christ. Of course, Dan and I also go to the temple most every week (or at least every other) and that also brings the spirit. 

GOD SAVED OUR CAR (i.e. the importance of following the spirit)

God saved our car Friday night. Dan decided to pull in both cars onto our driveway (we often leave one int he street). I felt foolish because I told him "aw, its okay if you just want to leave it in the street" but luckily he followed the spirit and pulled it out of the street. That night about 12:30 it sounded like a loud firecracker went off with one "bang" and then a bunch of things showering down like a firecracker has. Well the next morning we went outside to see the snow and right across the street there was a HUGE branch that had fallen off the tree right above where our car had been parked. The branch would have surely done tons of damage to our car! The ward came by and cut up the branches with a chainsaw and it made a pile 15 feet long and 5 feet tall! I am so glad Dan followed the spirit. 

MILAH

Milah started making consonant noises yesterday for the first time (e.g. adding "m" "b" "d" to her words). She also makes cute little squealing noises that don't hurt your ears but are cute. Well in Sunday School today there was a little boy who came up to her and started making louder growling noises and her cute little squeals became louder squeals and then shrieks. They kept making noises back and forth until she made an ear piercing scream. I think she just won against a boy who is like 8 months older than her! Atta girl Milah :)

She is so good! She missed both her naps yesterday (which is tragic for babies) but she was so sweet and fell asleep on my shoulder yesterday afternoon when we were shopping. Everyone remarks how incredibly happy she is and they all want to make faces at her. Then she makes the "bunny" face back at them where she crinkles her nose. They get such a kick out of it! 

SPIRITUAL MATTERS

Dan and I have been reading his mission journal daily lately. I have realized a lot more of what you are going through and how you must be growing leaps and bounds. Even if it doesn't feel like it, you are learning about yourself and your relationship with God. 

I loved this verse I read tonight "And now if you have imagined up unto yourselves a god who doth vary, and in whom there is shadow of changing, then have ye imagined up unto yourselves a god who is not a God of miracles. But behold, I will show unto you a God of miracles, even the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is that same God who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are." 

Mormon 9: 10-11. 

I believe that you will see miracles in your mission this week if you look for them. This last week Heavenly Father inspired Dan who followed a prompting and saved our car. I know you too can follow promptings to be led to those who will have soft hearts and hear the gospel. But even more importantly, you will be led to those who might reject you but who will know about the gospel because of you. They will be more open to the gospel of Jesus Christ and even search for it as they think about their lives and realize they should not have rejected you because you were trying to share the truth. 

I love you! 

Love, 

Alyssa

Tropical Green Smoothie

2 leaves kale
1/3 green apple
2 spears pineapple (frozen)
4 inches cucumber
2 small spoonfuls orange juice concentrate
6 oz almond milk
4 ice cubes
6 or 7 green grapes
BLEND. Its delicious!

Motto

I love this motto: 
“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”
  - Jules

Best Vegetarian Chili I've Ever Had!

I am definitely making this again for our ward's chili cookoff this Saturday night! 

(I adjusted a couple of other recipes to make this one!)

Ingredients:

In a little olive oil, sautee: 

1 medium red onion (diced)

At least 2 cloves garlic (you know there's no limit)

2 small zucchini

1/2 c celery

1 green bell pepper

1/2 red bell pepper

1/2 yellow bell pepper

2 carrots 

1 1/2 Tbsp fresh ginger peeled and minced

1/3 jalapeno pepper (use gloves when cutting!) 

Add spices (you're going to be tempted to leave out some of these but don't -- that's what makes it so good!)

2 bay leaves

1 tsp chili powder

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp coriander

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (really, it makes it so good!)

3 tsp Braggs liquid aminos (if you don't have this, soy sauce will work)

1/2 c fresh cilantro chopped fine 

a little fresh parsley

fresh ground black pepper

Once onions are translucent and vegetables are soft, add:

2 cans diced tomatoes (or use fresh)

Tomato sauce (the small can)

1 can kidney beans

1 can black beans

1 can corn

1 can generic/cheap vegetarian chili (has soy protein)

1 can Annie's black bean chili (this is SO good on its own)

Directions: 

If you sautee the vegetables then add everything else and let it cook on low heat for an hour or so it's going to be good! Don't worry. 

Delicious Green Juice

I made the yummiest green juice this morning!

1 english cucumber (I add matched these at Walmart yesterday for 20cents each!)
1 head romaine
1 lemon
2 green apples
2 wedges pineapple
Run through the juicer.

Oh, it is heavenly!

My awesome friend.

She wants to write children's books about biology. I think that is SO cool! 

On top of that my friend Linda Brisson Peterson has an awesome blog. I love it for birthing advice and I also use it to keep up on current events. I love that it has a lot of depth to it. Her blog is growing and she is doing her first ever giveaway! 
Check it out :)

Letter to my brother who is on a mission

In our church, we serve missions. 19 year old boys serve the Lord and preach the gospel, trying to help others find their Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. I thought I would share my letter to my brother who is in Moscow, Russia. 

"Elder Brown, 

This week has been a really fun one! 

Yesterday Dan bought a new suit for interviews with consulting firms. These interviews will be happening over the next couple of weeks and Dan's decided he wants to be a consultant :). 

Today we went to the Brigham City temple dedication -- it was so neat! I loved the part where the temple president promised us that as we attended the temple, we would be blessed to form righteous habits and routines. That is really important to me as I am continually trying to come closer to the Lord and to be the best mother I can be. It is important for me to raise Milah in the gospel, having righteous routines of prayer, reading scriptures, singing primary songs etc. 

Today we picked tons and TONS of tomatoes! Man, you would be so proud of our yummy garden! We picked pails and buckets and boxes full of pumpkins, zucchini, all manner of tomatoes, and watermelon -- yes, watermelon! We have cherry, beefsteak, and the best eating kind (the name of them is something with lady in it i think). They have overflowed the planters and since they outgrew their wire cages, there are plants growing over each other. For instance, there is the yummy eating kind of tomato and it is covered over by cherry tomato branches so I just stuck my hand in through the branches and pulled out 12 or so perfectly red and ripe tomatoes that I couldn't even see in there! The tomatoes have been falling on the ground and rotting and we just hate wasting food, so tonight I made a ginormous pot of spaghetti sauce that doubles very very well as soup :) 

Then you know my one track mind. Well I was trying to solve the problem of the rotting tomatoes (we have pounds of tomatoes every day) and we realized that I am going to learn to can! And I'm going to can this yummy pasta sauce! Isn't that the greatest idea? Well, I got excited about canning all the less expensive fruit and veggies in the summer to eat in the winter. 

I'd been trying to solve a problem for a while; we are told to have a year's supply of food storage, but I really want to keep healthy food. We don't eat a ton of grains or meat or cheese or the typical stuff you'd keep. But we go through tons of fresh salsa, tomatoes, apple sauce, peaches, zucchini for zucchini bread (which we'll freeze), and soups. Then Dan can just take a bottle of soup to work and love it! I am stoked if you can't tell. I think I'll have trouble sleeping tonight because I'm so excited. It's so funny how I get this one track mind about something and then my mind just works it over. Like yesterday we found all these great deals on clothes. I got multiple pairs of pants that were 90.00 pants for 8.00. Anyway, I know that doesn't really matter to you on a mission, but it was fun! And when you are students and don't have a lot of money, saving money is a really great thing! Oh, and finally I've been making sprouts! It's been so fun! 

We were looking at your weather today and it looks like you're already ushering in winter. 

The canyon is gorgeous here. It's still in the high 80s and low 90s most every day. 

We get to see Mom on Thursday and Dad and the kids on Friday -- it's going to be fantastic! 

I've been reading the scriptures in a different way this week. My friend had an idea to "read between the lines." Basically, you pretend like you are part of Nephi's family or observing the events that are happening. I have gained some really neat insights by reading this way :) 

Well thanks so much for your great work you awesome missionary! 

I love you! :)"