White Thanksgiving

Family!

It snowed here for the first time last week! I don't even know what to think. Last winter was MISERABLY cold, and I have not been looking forward to this one rolling in. Last winter had been the coldest and most snowy in the past 20 years, and they said this winter is supposed to be just as bad. I didn't think I realized this phenomenon last year, but the colder it gets, the more we smell like cigarett smoke. Think that's strange? Think again! You see, a large majority of people that we teach smoke cigarettes, and during the spring, summer and fall they find the initiative to smoke outside... but not so during the winter! -10 degrees sends them back indoors, cigarettes and all. It is a blessing in disguise, however, because a lot of people will have a desire to quit during the winter months that they never possessed before that. Pretty neat if you ask me.

This last week was a good one! We got to teach a whole lot of people who were all great. This guy named Cory that we are teaching is really starting to change. He has been reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it, and when we taught him on Saturday, he physically LOOKED different than before. His countenance is beginning to change. I loved that. 

We also had the opportunity to work with a man named Dan and invite him to church. He has also been praying and reading the Book of Mormon, and he came to church yesterday! He loved it, and on the way home, he said, "Man, I am just completely sold on your church!" He has already identified that he knows the Book of Mormon is true... we'll see where it goes! He is a good man.

Things are great out here! I'm going to restrain myself during Thanksgiving so I don't get too huge:) Should be a great day! 

Transfer week is next week. Elder Kay will probably be leaving since we have been together for 3 transfers already. Wouldn't it be nuts if we stayed together for four? We could definitely pull it off. I love this guy. He is reliable and easy to get along with. He has a deep doctrinal understanding and cares deeply about the work. He is great. Who knows! I wonder what the Lord has in store.

I love you all!

Elder Brown

Picture: (From left) Sister Browne, Sister Brown, Sister White, Elder Brown[me] and Elder Brown. Pretty impressive, huh? :)

Halloween Photos

Gospel Restored to Earth!

Family!

First, I just have to let you know, the gospel HAS been restored! I know it with every fiber of my being. The message has power in the lives of those who will seek to understand it, but it starts with a spark of desire, and a willingness to act.

This last week, our investigator from Canton who is in a wheelchair(Jacob), came to church! He was announcing to everyone that he was being baptized on the 29th of November! He wants it badly, and we had a very powerful experience with him in our last meeting.

Let me start from last Sunday. Last Sunday, Elder Kay and I fasted that someone that we were working with, or would work with in the future, would actually begin to read and ponder on the Book of Mormon. It is the center of our message, and we have been pushing with all of our might to help people to actually read it and seek to know if it's message is true. We had reached a point of frustration as we had tried, time and time again to help our investigators progress. In a phone call with a mission leader, he related that "people suddenly become more solid as they read the Book of Mormon on their own." It was a small start to the answer we were looking for.

This week, 3 of the Lord's investigators in our area began to search the Book of Mormon. We went over to Jacob's house on Saturday night to teach him the Word of Wisdom. He has a long way to go, and only 3 weeks to cover that much ground. We focused a lot on the redemptive power that baptism has on us. We testified that because of the Atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ, he could be clean from his sins and live with God forever. That's why we were teaching him about baptism and inviting him to read the Book of Mormon.

He accepted the invitation to read the Book of Mormon and live the Word of Wisdom and come to church (all of which he is doing or has done). In his closing prayer to the lesson he said, "Lord, I bless you that you have had Elder Kay and Elder Brown come and talk with me. I ask you to help me live the Word of Wisdom by November 15th so I can be baptized on the 29th. I want to be baptized so I can be clean and walk with you in heaven and with the Holy Ghost. Amen."

It was one of the most beautiful moments on my mission, and it was filled with the Spirit. I love being a missionary:)

Love,

Elder Brown

Wheelchair Miracles

Family!

Hello! I really hope that everyone out there who is reading these are appreciating my dumb jokes, because I always try to include at least one or two of them. I try really hard, but I can't physically hear anyone laughing, so we'll just assume I'm funny and keep going:)

This week was another week. Tammy is off the radar. She dropped us because of a family crisis. At least she didn't get antied!:) We stopped by and asked her about everything and she said that she just cannot devote all her time to her ailing son with her constantly having us over. We'll go back there in a few weeks to check up.

But! In other news, we've been working with this SWEET handicapped guy in a little town near Quincy. He is in a wheelchair because of a car accident he got into a few years back. I've got to tell you the story of how we found him because it is miraculous. I'm going to disguise the names for privacy's sake. 

So there is this little town called Canton where a bunch of less active members live. One of those less active members has a bunch of kids who were never baptized, but are all in their 20's. His name is Steven Gardner, and his children on our list were Jade and Joshua Gardner. Both Elder Kay and I had looked over the ward list in the very first months we were together and felt prompted to go and visit Canton, so the next time we were in the area, we scheduled some time to go and visit the less actives in that area. 

We arrived and got out of the car, walking toward the first Less Active on the list. There was nobody home, so we trekked toward the next one, about a 5 minute walk away. All the while, I just kept having the Gardner family pop into my head, and I thought, "We for sure need to visit there before we leave today." The next less active on the list was at a fake address. There was an empty lot there, but no house! So we moved on. 

All along the way, we had been prompted to knock on one or two doors, but nothing serious had happened, so we continued to search for doors we felt prompted to approach. I saw one out of the corner of my eye with a drum set in the window. I can kinda play the drums, so I was excited to talk to whoever lived there. We knocked on the door, and I could hear someone inside, but no one came to the door. We knocked again, but whoever it was was taking a long time, if they were even coming at all. Just as we were walking away, a young man in a wheelchair opened the door. As we began talking, he introduced himself as Joshua Gardner. Both Elder Kay an I almost fell off the porch because we recognized the name. He was at a COMPLETELY different address than the one on the list(one that we later discovered wasn't even correct). 

We have now been teaching him for 4 weeks, and he has felt the spirit a lot! He has a lot of issues to overcome, but his grandma is an active member in Trenton, MO, so hopefully that will help out a lot!

I love you all, and I'm grateful for your prayers!

20 October 2014

Family!

This week was GREAT! We had a really neat week. Nearly every lesson we had set up went through. I'm pretty sure we had only 2 cancellations the entire week. When we weren't driving, we were teaching, and the great thing was, the members were all over it too! This ward is so willing to interact with us and our investigators. I really love the members.

Two main experiences that I had this week with members:

1. We have been teaching Tammy for a while now, and she is really our only solid investigator. She is a member of another church, but she likes us a lot, and she has a lot of good questions. She has been reading the Book of Mormon a bit, and she hasn't really been understanding the purpose behind it, so we have been focusing mainly on that, but early this week, she told us that one of her problems was that when we had talked about the Plan of Salvation, she had a TON of questions about it, and she never felt like she received any answers. Well, Sister Stillwell, her main fellowshipper, and really someone that has become her friend, talked to her with so much love and care and described how she had come to know of it's truthfulness. When we came back later in the week, Tammy had re read the pamphlet but still felt uneasy about the questions she had, so we looked up some scriptures with her and coached her through them. There was a sweet spirit as we read about how we lived with Father in Heaven before this life. I felt my own testimony confirmed on this point. At the end, Tammy said, "Well, turns out we DID live before this. Now I just have to ask my Pastor why he hasn't been talking about this all along!" 

  Sister Stillwell responded, "Well, he's not a prophet, so he probably won't know!" She is so funny and great. Tammy got a kick out of that.:)

2. We had Stake Conference in Nauvoo, and I got to see a ton of members from Kirksville, Fort Madison, and Quincy all together. I am and continue to be very grateful that I've served in the same stake for 10 months now. It was such a neat reunion to see these wonderful people that I love so much! I got to see Sister Speir, who was Rhonda's fellowshipper and neighbor back in Fort Madison, Brother Mogenhan, who fed us all the time, and is now PRESIDENT Mogenhan(Branch President), and Karen, who was the lady baptized just after I left Fort Madison who we had helped to quit smoking. She is doing great! She has been a member almost a year and has been called as Assistant Librarian. She talked my ear off, just like the good ol' days!:)

I just love the members. You learn so much from them out here.

I know that this is the work of the Lord. Just look at the active members of the church all around you. That is a fruit of the Gospel. They live powerful lives and contribute so much. I feel like you can't leave their presence without feeling a little bit more resolved to live like Christ. That's what being a part of His church is really like. I love it:)

I love you all! 

Elder Brown

Pics: Me fighting "Zombie Joey" after the YSA Family Home Evening. They dressed up as zombies and delivered candy as a finding tool. Kinda unique. 

Grandma Brown

Family!

So, we live with our Bishop here in Quincy. It's him and his wife and their family of 7 kids. Their names are the Loves. They are so so so great! Really often after nightly planning and things are done, we'll go up and visit for a short while before 10 30 rolls around. Last night, we got to participate in family prayer and family scripture study. It was so much fun to be able to feel the Spirit in a family. I haven't felt the Spirit that way in a long time. 

Now don't get me wrong. The Spirit has taught me loads of things in Sacrament meeting, and it has been present in a lot of the lessons that we are able to teach, but it's a whole different thing seeing a mom or dad explain the scriptures to a ten year-old. There is a different type of Spirit. When you are in a home with a family who all is trying their very best to keep the commandments and love one another, that's heaven. I don't know why I didn't figure this out way earlier in life, but that's it! Heavenly Father's Plan of Salvation was all about living in love in a family setting for time and all eternity.

Super cool. I love being able to live in a home like this. It's a whole different atmosphere than normal. 

Anyway! As for our week, we had a great one! There is this lady that I'll refer to as Grandma Brown, because she has the same last name as us, and she is wonderful. She has been in a wheelchair since a very very young age due to contracting polio. We met her as she was riding down the street about a month ago.

We have been trying to help her come to church this whole time we've been teaching her, but the past weeks have been a let down as we have tried everything, but something would always come up last minute and shake the plans. This week, however, we had a lesson where we read the Book of Mormon with her and one of her friends and a member from the congregation, and she was explaining all SORTS of things to her friend about the apostasy as we read 1 Nephi 13. It is amazing! I don't think I've ever heard someone understand so thoroughly the Restoration of the Gospel after just 1 month. Sister Love (Grandma to our host family) said to her, "My goodness! If you understand this much already, just wait til you come to church! You'll be dangerous!"

And then she came to church! I think it was a little bit overwhelming, but we're teaching her today, so more news to come!

I love you all! Sorry my email is scattered!

Elder Brown

dropped, dropped, dropped

Family,

 

This is one of those weeks that I haven't wanted to tell anyone about. We got dropped by like everyone! And it all happened on Tuesday! Everyone!

 

You may be thinking, "Everyone? Can he really mean that?" Well, no. It's an exaggeration, but we got dropped/postponed by 4 of our most solid investigators. It was rough. Not fun in the slightest. It did teach me a lot about patience though. In Kirksville, I studied patience on at least a weekly basis because of how frustrating the work was there. We worked so diligently and hardly saw success. I started to realize that, just like an engine needs oil to stay cool and not explode, we need patience in order to avoid the same type of blow out. There is something cooling and relaxing about noticing that the work of the Lord cannot be frustrated. I guess that means that the workers of the Lord can't be either... eh? What do you think?:)

 

So! We march forward! Elder Kay and I will continue to push and help these people to come to the waters of baptism, and I promise I will stop being stressed and frustrated!

 

We had a great opportunity to have interviews with President and Sister Jensen this week though! That was really fun. Because Elder Kay and I had to stick around for all of the interviews, President and Sister Jensen took us out to dinner too. It was so fun to be able to talk to them and get to know them on a less formal basis. Turns out that President Jensen is really famous in scientist circles. He's like the best, smartest guy in the whole universe. He is a geospatial engineer, and he's written like a bunch of textbooks, published 150 science journal articles, and worked for NASA.

 

We asked what their favorite vacation spot was, and they said that they went on Safari in Africa once. President said, "It's really unique. It's like a huge, diverse, incredible zoo! The only difference is that everyone is eating each other!"

 

Anyway, it was a week being a missionary. We had really hard parts and really joyful parts. It's just a rollercoaster!:)

 

I love you all! Have a fantastic week!

 

Elder Brown

 

PS Sorry I didn't email yesterday. Library was closed for Labor day.

Attachments area

Preview attachment IMG_6020.JPG

IMG_6020.JPG