The Armpit

Hey family!

Well. Looks like you already know. I am indeed in great ol Barstow! The armpit of California. HA. It's pretty ghetto but there's plenty of work to do. Hot sweaty work. haha. Luckily It has cooled down about 10-15 degrees in the past few weeks so it's about 100 degrees instead of 115.

Since I've arrived the work has suddenly sky rocketed. We haven't really changed anything but it's like investigators are suddenly falling out of the sky. We went to Yermo and there was a member family who's wife wanted a blessing. Turns out that they had not been in contact with the church for a while and the younger two boys aren't members but want to be. Also, a girl showed up at church saying she wants to be a member. I guess missionaries had talked to her once before but her mom had said no but she's 18 now and super positive; she's already reading the Book of Mormon. We also got a street contact with a girl named Tressel (sp?) and when we went back to teach her she had a friend there and they both listened to our lesson and said they felt "really good chills." So we're really excited about all these people that we have to teach. It's pretty sweet.

The Yoakums ran into gma and gpa huh? That's cool :) the Yoakums are pretty hilarious.

I was thinking today that I'll never get used to hot weather. Maybe by the end of next summer but I doubt it. I'm just not a fan of being all sweaty. haha. Oh well.

So being a district leader isn't bad so far. I haven't had to conduct a district meeting yet though. Our district is very young. My companion has been out 3 months and the other missionaries have each been out 4 and a half months. They're some of the hardest working missionaries I've ever seen though and they're doing amazingly well.

My new companion's name is Elder Grill. He's... weird. Like. A lot. But he's a hard worker and he can teach so I'm happy with that for sure. He calls himself a musician a lot. Like a lot lot. He plays piano and sings.

Oh hey! I didn't tell you this week but we were helping a family move up in Wrightwood and they had a bunch of stuff that they were just getting rid of. They told us to help ourselves to anything there and I saw a keyboard stand. I wasn't expecting anything to come of it but I bluntly said "that looks like a keyboard stand." She got all excited and said "there's a keyboard too! Do you want it? Do you play piano? Take it! :)" I was just like... wha...? So. I got a keyboard! And I've held on to it. haha. Grill is pretty happy about that.

I heard something pretty cool yesterday that I wanted to share with you. We were talking about the Spirit and I heard a way sweet analogy. If you have a glass of water and you dump the water out, what's filling the glass? Many would say, "nothing," but really there is air filling that space; there is always something filling the space. And the same goes with ourselves and our hearts. If we lose the Spirit of God and have not His spirit in our heart, what is filling it? Nothing? No. If it is not fillied by the Spirit of God than it is filled by the spirit of the devil. So. Think about that :)

It's weird having been the junior companion for so long and now being looked up to by multiple other missionaries as a guide for answers, teaching, conduct, and just plain leadership. Elder Grill always goes telling people that "I'm the district leader" and I want to quickly put a stop to that. haha.

Well I'm running out of time. We've had a tight schedule today. Laundry is more time consuming since we have to go to members' houses to do it.

The church is true! The work is true! I've always said that God could just plop people to teach into our laps if He felt so inclined. Now look! I told you it was possible ;) haha

Love,

Elder Browning