"...become ye as little children."

 Oi! Is it just me or are the weeks starting to pass by quicker and quicker?  I think part of it has to do with conference as well.  How did everyone enjoy conference?!  I have never experienced something quite like it with being at Temple Square.  Being a missionary here really gave me a whole new perspective on the whole General Conference experience.  I want you to think of where you were this weekend for Conference.  Were you at home?  Were you at a friend's home or with family?  Did you watch on your computer, on a TV?  Think of the miracle General Conference is brothers and sisters.  Here at Temple Square I was a witness to thousands and thousands of people flooding the streets to go and hear a Prophet speak, to go and hear the words of God as spoken by his prophets and apostles.  Think of the miracle that is :) 


Day 1 of Conference with Sisters from all around the world! So exciting!

Walking around Temple Square we were able to meet people from around the world, people who had traveled thousands of miles and had sacrificed great amounts to be able to come and attend even just one session of General Conference. As a missionary at Temple Square, they needed us up on the square talking with all of the visitors, so we were able to attend just one session (the Saturday morning session), and even that gave me so much hope and so much joy to hear from and be in the same room as the Prophet, to be in a room holding so much hope and faith.


With Sister Deleu (France) and Sister Siegle (Brasil...my adorable companion!) right before day 1 of General Conference

To be prepared for General Conference, we had a meeting Friday night as a mission.  Before the closing of the meeting, we watched a short clip from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.  He said something that really stuck with me, "General Conference tells the world- God not only lives, but He speaks."  I testify to each of you that God does live and that He does speak to each of us, His children, today. I know that so many prayers and questions were answered throughout the world this past weekend, and not only with the distinct words being uttered by those who spoke, but also with the quiet whisperings of the Holy Ghost. I am so grateful that these words are recorded that we can go back and read them or view them as often as we would like to.  These words are revelation and they are revelation for the world!


With roommates and friends before heading back up to the square to finish out a wonderful conference weekend!





Can you see now why The Book of Mormon and why The Holy Bible are so important and so precious?  These books contain the records of ancient prophets.  God spoke to them, and He speaks to us now.  I am so grateful for how dependable our Father in Heaven is.  He truly wants to make Himself accessible to all His children around the world.


Sister Humble and I celebrating our first General Conference on the mission!

Something I love so much about the gospel of Jesus Christ and about the words of the Prophet, is that the message is so pure and so simple that "even a child can understand it."  One of the most touching experiences I had this weekend was at the Reflection Pond on the east side of the Salt Lake temple.  Sister Siegle had run into an older couple who spoke Portugese.  They had served a mission in Brasil and had come to General Conference with their granddaughters, Taylor and Courtney. 

As Sister Siegle spoke with this amazing couple, I was inspired and so uplifted by these two young girls before me.  Taylor and Courtney are twins, they are 8 years old and were just baptized this past Sunday. They were so sincere and so genuine as they spoke about the joy they felt at their baptism, of the presence of the Holy Ghost that was so strongly there.  They told me about the missionary work they have been doing with teaching their friends at school about the gospel.  I knelt down beside them and picked up two small "forget me not" flowers and handed them to the two little girls before me. 

I explained that these were flowers that can remind us to always remember the little things in our life, to remind us to always have joy.  I asked them about what little things there are in their life that make them happy. Taylor looked at Courtney and said, "Well, she's everything to me- Courtney has been with me forever.  We were born together, we were baptized together and we'll probably even die together...but I'm not really sure how that works." haha as you can imagine, these little girls were so cute and so adorable. Then Courtney smiled and twirling from side to side grabbed Taylor's hand and looked right into her eyes and said, "Yeah, we have been together forever, but we were with someone even before and now he's with us even more since we got baptized." 


Sister Barrett (California) is so much fun and has such wonderful stories! I feel so lucky to have been in her same district this transfer.

These two 8-year old girls went on to explain to me that Jesus Christ was their "forget me not flower."  These girls knew that they had lived with God and Jesus Christ before, and that they would return to live with them again. I remember feeling the spirit so strongly as these girls spoke about their love for Jesus Christ and of their love for their Heavenly Father and they shared that they were already preparing for missions because of the announcement and because of the emphasis on missionary work at general conference.

It was in this moment that I really learned what it means to come unto Christ as a little child.  In "Jesus the Christ," it reads,

"Christ would not have had His chosen representatives become childish; far from it, they had to be men or courage, fortitude and force; but He would have them become childlike.  The distinction is important.  Those who belong to Christ must become like little children in obedience, truthfulness, trustfulness, purity, humility, and faith."

Courtney and Taylor were my angels this General Conference weekend who truly were examples to me.  Their trust in God, their purity, their humility, was a reminder that we are to always remember WHO'S we are.  We are children of God.  Just as our Fathers here on earth, He wants us to succeed and He did not send us here to fail.  I know that General Conference, having a living Prophet and Apostles, the gift of prayer, church, the scriptures are all here to help us succeed.  Sometimes we may think that in order to succeed by the church's standards, by God's standards, we are sacrificing a lot.  If we really look at it though, we can see that this gospel, the doctrine of Jesus Christ, His plan, is perfect and we are everything to Him because we are His children.  I promise you that if there is something that you have been encouraged during this conference weekend to give up, or to be better at, it truly isn't a sacrifice but it is a tremendous blessing and opportunity to be transformed.



With roommates and friends before heading back up to the square to finish out a wonderful conference weekend!

Sister Asay (from Texas) and I were SO excited about Dinner Sunday night.  A local stake made us homemade Cafe Rio! Ahhh! :)

"What we give up only blesses us and prepares us for exaltation; there is no such thing as a sacrifice." (a quote shared with me by a fellow missionary).

I love you all and hope you have a most marvelous week!


Love always,
Sister Briggs


SHOUTOUTS: Sister McDougle, Zach Hansen, Carmen Bone, Danny Gessell, Joe Morris, Kenny Hutchings, Alexx Levya, Caroline Slater, Bryan & Casey, the beautiful Ensign King Family, Briana Layton and her cousins, Robbie Hernandez, Cory, Joe Peters, Sister Stephenson and Kate Thornock :)



Our amazing Zone Leaders (Sister Martinez from Spain and Sister Hvistendahl from Greenland) after our District Meeting...amazing spiritual thought from Sister Huffaker from California who shared with us her own version of Ether 12:27 (about making weaknesses strong).  She compared it to Pokemon and said , "Gotta teach 'em all!"  We love her :)

On a Scale of 1-10: How Much Does This Hurt?

Hi everyone! I hope you all had an amazing week full of joy and love and maybe even cookies. I so look forward to this upcoming week as it's General Conference time! Yes, to the rest of the world this may be a relaxing time to stay home and eat breakfast as you sit on the couch watching General Conference, but for us Temple Square missionaries, it is the busiest time of the year.  We need to be on the square at 7:30 in the morning ready to go and don't get to go home until about 10 at night...I am so excited :)  I just may feel like a little kid at Christmas time.

So, so happy I got to see my beautiful Sister...Casey BRIGGS :)

Waiting for the General Relief Society Broadcast to start with our amazing Zone Leaders!
Sister Hvistendahl (1 of 5 members in Greenland) and Sister Martinez (Spain)

This past week I've seen a lot of miracles in my life.  I have met and spoken with people that have truly inspired me and have brought me closer to my Savior. However, what I really want to share with you all is something I realized earlier this week and have been made so aware of throughout the remainder of it.  My testimony is really growing of Personal and Companionship study time :)

Still waiting with Sister Ince (Canada) and Sister De Castro (Brasil).
It was such an amazing broadcast!

SO excited about my dinosaur shirt from Grandfather and Grandma Jeanie!
I couldn't stop smiling or dancing about it haha

Every time we go to see a doctor, it seems we are always asked the same questions.  One of the most common ones being, "On a scale of 1-10, how much does this hurt?"  I've never really known how to answer this question.  Even Bryan Reagan has done a skit on this question because it's not one that is really fair to answer.  We often don't know how to explain our pain, and oftentimes what may be a 7 on the scale of pain for me, could quite easily be a 2 on the scale of pain for another.  It just doesn't seem like a fair question.

Our HILARIOUS roommates Sister Creal (Indiana) and Sister Taito (Fiji).
We seriously have the best time together every night drinking hot chocolate and talking about our day.
They are the best :)

Sister Siegle and I played basketball with some of the other sisters at 6 in the morning
and it was so much fun!
Watch out Rob, Bryan and Dad...I'm getting some tricky skills on the court :)

All growing up I really have wanted to invent a certain something, and it's not something I've told many people about because they would always just kind of laugh at me and tell me I was silly...but here I am telling you now :) I always wanted to invent some way for the doctors to feel my pain, even for just a second.  I don't mean this in that I wanted them to hurt, or to feel sad or scared like I may have been, I just wanted them to better understand how I was feeling in a way I couldn't express with words. I always figured that if they could just feel my pain for a second, they would best know how to treat me.
When I was reading in The Book of Mormon, I came across a scripture that made me think back to this invention.  
In Mosiah 3:10 it reads, 

"And he shall rise the third day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge the world; and behold, all these things are done that a righteous judgment might come upon the children of men."

Never has this scripture been so profound or hit me so deeply as it did at this time. Jesus Christ is the one who stands to judge the world because He knows perfectly how we feel.  He is the only one who could pass a righteous judgment as He as experienced the same pains and knows if we truly gave everything our best, if we truly had faith considering the circumstance we were given in this life.  I also know, that the Atonement is essential to the growth and progression of all mankind.  I know that our Heavenly Father suffered His perfect, beloved son Jesus Christ to die, and that Jesus Christ himself was willing to come, because they wanted to someone to understand perfectly what we would all go through during our time here.

With the birthday girl, adorable Sister Christensen turned 22! 

With Sister P.Lee from Taiwan who will soon be returning to her original mission in Idaho,
I will miss her oh so much!

What I thought would be a perfect invention, is simply modeled after the perfect wisdom of our Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ- our ultimate healers. Because our Savior knows exactly how we feel we don't have to worry about picking a number between 1 and 10 to describe our pain, we don't have to worry about wondering if our description will give him the ability to completely fix us.  Because Jesus Christ suffered as all mankind has and would, He knows best how to heal us.
Just as the doctors around the world have studied, prepared, practiced medicine and wait anxiously each day to help us, so does the Savior wait to help us.  I know that Jesus Christ's role in our life cannot be underestimated.  He already suffered everything for each of us and anxiously waits to heal us.  Although we do not need to worry about explaining our pain to him, we do need to come unto him in order to have the healing in our lives that we so seek.  I have felt my Savior healing me on my mission and throughout my entire life.  At times I knew that no one could understand my heartaches or sorrows, He did.  Let the Savior heal you.

After Maria's baptism :)

Maria was baptized! She was an investigator lesson we took with the local elders here.
She is from Brasil and is 82 years old and was baptized just this past week.
When she came with her son in law and the Elders just a few weeks ago,
I promised her I would bear my testimony in Portuguese at her baptism, and I did. :)
It was the best feeling in the world!

I love you all so very much and hope for nothing but the very best for each of you.  I may not know of everything you are all going through or be able to even understand it, but you already know who does. Trust in him and I promise you will find yourself becoming whole and complete again.


Love Always,

Sister Briggs

P.S. General Conference this weekend! Watch it, take notes, LOVE IT :)  I am so grateful to be serving here for such an exciting time!

SHOUTOUTS: Uncle Mike (thanks for the cookies!), Casey BRIGGS, Courtney King and lovely Aunt Nicole, George Edwards (my best buddy from England came by! Good luck in the MTC!), Jessica HoHeywood (the dinosaur picture was awesome!), Dayna Kirkpatrick (your card was so beautiful, thank you!), Robert and Donakey family, Grandfather and Grandma Jeanie (thank you so much for the DINOSAUR shirt...ahhh!!!!!), Kathy Wiley, Kate Thornock, Sister Lin's sister and Sariah M :)

Another Kelsey Sighting!

Amy and Ashley King ran into Kelsey on Friday afternoon! 

{Ashley is Casey's sister and Amy is Casey's mom.}

Family is just the greatest thing.

Note from Casey: 

Seeing Kelsey with my family made me so incredibly happy and jealous. 

Kelsey is really such a great example to all of us. 

I am so deeply proud of my adorable sister-in-law. 

Family really is forever, and I am so grateful that mine is so wonderful.