Service and Goodbyes

May 7

Hi fam :)

Sounds like everyone is doing well and staying busy! Even if it's their body busily overcoming sicknesses. Haha.

Well, it's been a rough last week with elder Wadsworth. Lots of disappointments throughout the week, yet we're not disappointed. We've worked and served harder than ever and even though it wasn't necessarily a successful week with our numbers, we both felt satisfied that we've done what we could. And that's really what matters. We lost 2 investigators that said they didn't want us to come back and our other few investigators aren't progressing. But, we'll keep trying.

We spent most of this last week doing one of three things; service, saying goodbyes, and packing. Some of the service has actually been pretty enjoyable. I spent Tuesday and Thursday weed whacking 2 different members' yards. I enjoy weed whacking and for some reason think it's kind of fun. haha. Tuesday night we also demolished a shed. Sledgehammers and broken boards. fun stuff. All 3 of those projects were for single, older women. Also, Saturday morning we cut up a big tree that had fallen at a campground nearby and hauled off all the limbs and big rounds. So yup. Lots of service haha.
On Wednesday, I spent most of the day with one of the zone leaders because elder Wadsworth had a departing missionary temple trip that took most of the day. It was a neat experience and I feel like he helped me become better at tracting. Not good or great, but better. haha.

One of the nice things about having extra time while elder Wadsworth was packing was that I was able to deep clean our place. I cleaned the bathroom thoroughly, the mirrors and windows, and our kitchen. Since I've been the main one to do those things over the past 12 weeks, I hope elder Wadsworth does a better job after he goes home. haha. Speaking of Wadsworth, we said goodbye about an hour ago so I'm with the missionaries in Phelan until tomorrow.

Items of business huh? sounds like some council or something. Haha. The letters would be pretty cool to read. Would they come via dear elder or what? I don't have extra time to read them on email, but I would enjoy hearing how those missionaries are doing. And the other stuff... trash it. I meant to throw it out before I left anyways. So. yeah. thanks :)

Speaking of packages, you'll probably get one from me later today. Careful when you open it; it might explode! I crammed a lot in that little box haha

Well I wish I had some cool stories for ya this week. I'm racking my brain but there hasn't been a lot else going on. haha. Hopefully we have enough stuff to talk about when we skype that it lasts for more than 10 or 15 minutes. Baha :)

Oh here's something I should probably tell you about. Or. Well. Yeah, whatever. Haha. Anyways. I had a migraine all weekend. That was no bueno. It hasn't flared up today, and I'm hoping it stays that way.

I'm nervous to find out who my new companion is. I'm definitely going to miss elder Wadsworth. I'm not training though, so I suppose that's a relief. haha. And I'm staying in Wrightwood at least 1 more transfer.
I talked to the bishop here and he said we can skype at his house. It will be sometime between 2 and 5 probably (3 and 6 your time) and we should have an hour or two to chat. So yeah :) I might use my own skype account if I can remember my login info. haha.

I wrote down a scripture reference that I really liked. D&C 31:3-13. Don't remember what it says off the top of my head, but I remember really liking it. You should look it up :)

I sure love you guys. I didn't say that much when I was home; I should have. But I do mean it! :) You're all super great :)

Love,

Elder Browning

Cartoony Nelson

April 30, 2012

Hi family! :)

Boy I sure agree with you. It's been a long week for me too! We've done a TON of service this past week. Saturday was Mormon helping hands, and we ended up doing service the whole day haha. We cleaned up some camping/visitor areas near town in the morning, helped the member we live with around the house, and then helped a family move in just down the road. We already have a good amount of service planned for this week (especially Tuesday) so we're going to try and work hard to get appointments so when people ask for more help with this, that, or the other we can have an excuse to say no. Haha :) I'm joking. I enjoy service, but we have a lot of people we want to try and teach this week before elder Wadsworth goes home.

I wish I had some cool stories this week. I really don't... there was one thing that happened that ended up being pretty cool. We were driving by a members house in the evening and he was moving a bunch of wood by himself. like 4 or 5 cords. He's young and strong, but there was a ton there so we jumped out and helped him for a while. He was very grateful and we found out afterwards that he'd been working all day long and was just praying that someone would come help him finish because he was about ready to give up. Pretty cool :)

I thankfully got to go to a chiropractor last week. Dr Eyre, a member in the neighboring ward. He's visually impaired (glaucoma) but can see enough and feel enough to do what he needs to. He adjusted my back but I think I over did it in basketball and service so I went back in a few days later and he adjusted it a second time and I haven't had a problem since. I'll go in a 3rd time later this week for followup.

 

Mom, I would be grateful to have all and any of the things you've mentioned. Don't worry about it too much though, you don't have to send anything ;) haha. We used the remainder of our budget on apples, bananas, asparagus, broccoli and spinach leaves. haha. I made some pretty good asparagus and broccoli by just adding a little garlic salt and butter. Mmm :) haha

I didn't realize how big my wanter/needy list had gotten. Yikes! You don't have to go out and buy cds for me. Maybe for my birthday or something, but try not to pay for more than shipping costs. You can definitely keep your eyes peeled for music by those artists and Steven Sharp Nelson or John Shmidt for the future though :) haha. I bought a cd by Steven Sharp Nelson a few weeks ago and it is amazing! I love that kind of music, especially as a missionary. If you wanted to burn copies of the Insideout cds, that'd be awesome :) our rule on music is it has to be by an lds artist and be christ centered. That's just another note to keep in mind.

On that wanter list note... It's getting hoter and it'd be way nice to have shorts to do service and sleep in. I only have one pair right now, and they're going to get hammered really fast. I have a couple pairs I left at home (blue, gray, black, and white) that you could send. However many fit I guess :) the black ones aren't in great condition, so I wouldn't bother sending those. Maybe just one or two pairs, like the blue ones and white ones.
Okay. I think I need to not ask for anything ever again. haha :)

 

I'm jealous that you got to visit the Porters! I've thought about that family more than once. I'm glad to hear Trent is serving a mission! that's awesome :) Make sure to tell them that I love them and have been thinking about them!

 

I read a talk not too long ago by Brad Wilcox. He's in CES administration and is similar to John Bytheway. He also helped write the words to the Cumorah's Hill cd. Anyways, he talked about the atonement of Christ. He talked about grace, and the fact that we often think that we are saved by grace after all we can do. He said this is actually not the case. The grace of Christ is with us every step of the way, helping us along the journey of life. Christ has already paid the price for our sins. Thus, we are not earning heaven; we are learning heaven. We are learning how to live like God and be in his presence. It's an excellent talk titled "His Grace is Sufficient" if you want to read the whole thing. Good stuff :)

 

I guess there's a new Les Miserables movie being made with Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean and Russel Crowe as Javert. That... would be totally epic. You'll have to go see it for me. haha

 

Well fam. I love ya :) Thank you, so much, for you love and prayers and support. You're awesome :)

Love,

Elder Browning

 

Oh! Elder Wadsworth said something funny. I was just eating an apple but being silly about it and he was laughing and said "how do you do those cartoony faces??" Cartoony. It's a new 'Nelson' adjective I suppose. Haha :)

Come Thou Fount

April 23, 2012

Hey fam!

Thanks for the emails mom and dad :) it sounds like you've all had a pretty good week! Besides mom at least. Do you know how you herniated a disk in your back mom? It's probably leftover damage from that car accident you had a while ago. Hopefully you get it figured out... :/ I'm calling a member chiropractor today in a neighboring ward to get my back checked out this week. It's definitely not as bad as yours! But I've been getting headaches that I'm pretty sure are related to my neck as well. We'll see though.

It's been fun to get out and do some yard work. We did some weeding for an older lady in the ward and I also assembled a glider bench that she'd ordered online. There were like no instructions and a ton of stuff to put together, but I had fun figuring it out. haha.

 

We had a pretty quiet week. We're working on following up with a lot of potential investigators. We had some lessons with some other investigators (people who have been taught for a long time but aren't really progressing) and have really emphasized that they need to study it out and pray and find out for themselves if what they've been taught it true. We'll follow up to see if they've done that and hopefully they'll be some more progression.
It was, however, a week of several accomplishments and good personal revelation from Elder Ballard. I finished the Book of Mormon on Saturday! I got a lot out of reading through the whole thing thoroughly. Read it in 68 days. haha. Also, guess what? I've written in my journal EVERY DAY for the past 2 weeks straight! That's the first time I've done that... ever. haha. I know I'll be glad to have it when my mission is over.

One of the days was spent working on our bikes... me fixing up mine and Elder Wadsworth... packing his up. haha. I didn't realize that's what he was doing until he was almost done. My odometer cord had broken when the missionaries put my bike together so I spliced the wires back together and it works now. Glad I have enough know-how to do that!

So the meeting with Elder Ballard was phenomenal. Really really great. It's so funny to listen to an apostle when he's off script... they're so hilarious! He focused a lot on obedience and how we need to stirve to be 100% obedient to have the spirit working through us. I wrote down something President Godwin said at the end that I really liked. He said "the most important thing is not the numbers nor the obvious visual success; it is the process of the Holy Spirit working through you successfully." Seems to go along with some of the things you said :)

We had a pretty cool experience at church yesterday... Elder Wadsworth and I sang "Come thou fount" in Sacrament meeting. It was funny to see everyone's faces change from "oh no the missionaries are singing" to "wow. that sounds good!" There were several sets of teary eyes and the Spirit was really strong. Sister Jorgenson said she knew Linda (grandma) was there and was proud. It was a very neat experience. And I feel bad that you had to miss out! I got to do some of the arranging of parts between the two of us so that was fun. I had my companion sing tenor and me on the melody the first verse, unison the 2nd, and him on the melody and myself on the bass the 3rd verse. I really enjoyed it and I'm glad that I have a companion that shares my talent and love of music and song.

That was pretty much our week. We're going to try and work harder before Elder Wadsworth goes home. 2 questions though... are my insoles that we bought before my mission in my room? I remember buying 2 or 3 pairs I think. But. I forgot to take them with me haha. My insoles are all still good right now, but I'll need those in the not-too-distant future. Also, do you have recipes you could send me for homemade syrup? I absolutely love homemade maple syrup. I remember you saying it's not too complicated, and if that's the case, I'd like to make some haha. Same thing with a caramel syrup recipe. If it's a disaster I won't try again but I'd like to try at least once. haha

Well. Thanks for all your love and support! I'll need info so that I can skype with you on the 13th :) I'll try and figure out a time and place by the 7th so I can let you know but I might not be able to figure it out until a few days before. Hopefully it will be sometime in the afternoon! Let me know your planned Sunday schedule and I'll try and work into that.

Also, just a note, it takes at least 6 days for me to get mail. Sometimes 7 or 8 because of the Weekend. That doesn't really matter... but I calculated it out and thought I'd let you know. haha

I love you guys! :)

Elder Browning

Riverside & Redlands

April 18, 2012

Hey fam!

Well we had a super awesome temple trip today. I really enjoyed the Redlands temple - it's nice to smell flowers again. Haha. And we had a great baptismal service on Saturday! The spirit was there and it was very touching. Amber's grandparents from Nampa ID were there, and her grandpa Patrick McQueen (what a name huh?) gave a very powerful talk on the Holy Ghost. He said "I don't ever cry, but I might just have an allergy attack." Funny :) He looks like the old man from the movie Up. Haha :) Amber got confirmed in church on Sunday by her uncle. We helped her pack the rest of her things on Monday and sent her off to Escondido with the Ward information there and made sure to forward her info to the missionaries down there as well (via way of the Mission Office).

 

Grandma and Grandpa got called to Riverside??? No way! That's absolutely nuts. It would be way sweet if we ended up running into each other! We have a mission conference with Elder M Russell Ballard this Saturday (super excited for that), hopefully we'll have another big one during the time Grandma and Grandpa are out. And congratulations to Megan with Junior miss! 1st runner up is basically 2nd place right? That really is perfect. You get scholarships and recognition but don't have to... keep going. haha. Way to go Megs! You deserve it :) 

Besides Amber, the rest of the week was pretty quiet. It snowed for like 3 days, but luckily we never had more than about a foot of snow on the ground at a time. The sun came out enough in between storms to melt it partly away. Weird thing though, the last two days its been 70 degrees. I'm not complaining, but the snow was just... funny. haha. We've also both been feeling pretty blah. It's hard to buy veggies and whole grain healthy foods because we can't afford to do so on our budget. Plus, the members like to feed us less than the most healthy meals as well. It's not like we only eat chips and cookies and ice cream, but we're lacking in the "best foods" category. Haha. I'm going to start focusing on eating the "green stuff" that members serve when we have member meals. Like. Getting all 4 servings of veggies at dinner. haha. Honestly, your grandola bars sound fantastic :) If you ever feel like sending me something like pumplin flaxseed granola instead of cookies, go for it. Baha. :)

 

We're struggling to follow up with referrals and potential investigators. Most of our potentials don't want to be taught or join the church, but have said it would be okay for us to come back... so we're getting avoided. haha. But we keep trying. And the few referrals we've received are the same. They usually aren't home or don't answer. Or aren't interested. Oh well. We're going to focus on finding new investigators for the next few weeks and try to shake things up a little.

 

I though of some things to add to that list... at least for now. haha.

-another pair (or two) of my black "no show" socks. I only have two pairs with me, and they aren't going to last for much longer with the running/basketball/hiking/volleyball/etc. that I do each week.

-My black cd player. It's on the bottom shelf on my desk in my room. It should still work... maybe Jeren could double check first. Our cd player here broke, and I miss the Motab. haha.

-a note on the Maderma that I don't remember if I said or not: there should be 3 tubes in my bathroom, most of them in the drawers. You don't have to send all 3 if you'd like to keep one around the house, but I would like as much as you can send (my scars are pretty long).

I think that's it. Haha. Mom, I'll pray for you and your back to recover quickly. Speaking of backs, I might have dislocated a rib in my back... yikes. haha. The middle of my back will start to hurt if I'm sitting without a back support (so like, sitting on the floor or on a stool). It isn't painful to the point that I can't function, but it is pretty annoying and has been bothering me for 3 weeks now. If it had just been muscular, like how I've slightly strained my back before, it would have healed by now. So. I'll probably figure out what's wrong later this week.

 

Thank you for all your love and support :) If I forgot to tell you about something... It's only a few more days until I write again! Since it was longer than usual this last week. But. Yeah. Haha :) love you guys!

Elder Browning