Sneaky Grandparents

October 31, 2012

Hello family!

Guess who I ran into at the temple? Grandma and grandpa again! I was actually in the men's changing area when I ran into grandpa! We sat together during the session. How cool is that? He sat nearby me when I first got my endowment and it was fun to be with him again. Grandma said she was going to call you so if she hasn't already done so, expect a call from her. She gave me two hugs; one for you mom and one for her. haha. We're thinking we maybe shouldn't meet up every time I go to the temple anymore, but it has sure been a blessing to see them twice now.

 

Well it's been fairly slow recently. Most of the work we did was with recent converts; we have quite a few. Vera has a sibling and a friend that she is going to talk to about possibly taking the lessons.

 

We had a couple odd/weird/interesting things happen recently. One is... well. Backing up, Elder Grill is making an effort to work out every morning and a half-hearted effort to loose weight. Usually, he gets in the shower (we have 2) shortly after I shut my water off. On I think Wednesday it was, I didn't hear his shower turn on and when I was getting dressed I didn't hear him working out in the other room. So I walk into the other room and he's sprawled on the couch. haha. He rolled off the couch and pulled himself towards the bathroom doing kind of an army crawl walrus walk thing. I told him he's going to get a rug burn but he said he was fine. Turns out, he totally wrecked the top of his foot. Most of the skin was gone. So I've been doing my best to keep it wrapped and help it heal. It's the size of a gauze pad. It's getting a lot better but it was pretty painful for several days. It'll probably leave a permanent scar.

 

So. That's one story. haha. We were at a thrift store recently when this woman in a Snow White costume comes up to us and says "hey do you guys give prayers of healing... you know... blessings?" And I responded affirmatively and she said "I could use a blessing before you guys leave." So. Elder Grill was pretty uncomfortable because he didn't know what to do but I had us walk out to the parking lot and gave her a brief blessing there. She's apparently LDS and reads the book of Mormon and stuff but. It was way odd. I guess I mean she was way odd. Apparently she's trying to get to Hollywood. haha. You never know who or what you'll run into.

 

We spoke in Newberry Springs on Sunday. Only Elder Grill and I were speaking and he took about 15 minutes so that left me with plenty of time. I took about 25 minutes, expounding on several of the Articles of Faith and how we can all use them as a tool to call upon in missionary work. The branch members are all odd, some good some bad, but you can tell they all have a strong testimony of the gospel.

 

The maintenance guy for our apartment complex has been talking to us a little recently. He goes to his own Christian church, but he was curious about various aspects of our life as missionaries, like meals, what we do for fun, if we get paid as missionaries, etc. The conversation about payment turned into talking about how members help us out with dinners and he asked if he could bring us dinner some time. So he brought the 4 of us pizza last night, him and another guy from his church that pitched in. He was curious about how some of our beliefs differed from other Christians. He asked a question about the Godhead; I don't remember how he worded it but it was worded pretty confusingly. It was funny; all the 3 other missionaries slowly turned towards me with the same expression when he asked it. haha. He was basically asking about if other Christians believed that God the father came down as Christ. I told him yes many Christians do believe that, but then explained our belief and shared a couple scriptures where you see all 3 separate beings manifested at once. Then he had a look that was like "now I'm not sure which to believe." He said "well. Either way. I believe in Jesus as my savior and so do you guys and so do other Christians, and that's what really matters." We gave him a book of Mormon and he said he'd read it. There's possibly some potential there; you never know.

 

We're teaching a woman named Janeen. She met with the missionaries before and was pretty close to being baptized but got sick and was in and out of the hospital for a while and started smoking again. We've picked her back up and she wants to be baptized still but the same hurdle of smoking will have to be crossed.

 

About the package you sent... I got it almost a week ago. The zls brought it all the way to Barstow and were like "wait. We brought this all the way here and you're not going to open it?" So I finally gave in to peer pressure. BUT! I stopped there; the packages are all wrapped still! It's been hard waiting so long but not impossible. haha. Um. The garments you sent definitely aren't mine. The one pair I left behind had only been worn a few times. If they've disappeared, oh well I guess. :)

 

One question; should I send a card for Jeren to gma and gpa's house or just send it home? Let me know on Monday when I email again.

 

I love you guys! Thank you for all your continual support and encouragement. I need all the help I can get ...and then some. ha.

Love,

Elder Browning

Baptism!

October 23, 2012

Hi family!

We have an appointment that I have to leave for sooner than I'd like so I'll hurry.

It was a rough week through Friday. Most of our appointments fell through and several people we've been teaching dropped us. One guy out in Newberry Springs calls himself a dry Mormon because he's been to church a lot and has been researching Mormonism for years but hasn't joined. He wants to but his family is super opposed so he told us to hold off for now. I'm hoping his family (especially his daughter) will soften their hearts sometime soon.

Besides that, we had a pretty sweet day on Saturday! Vera's baptism was awesome! We met with her on Thursday to finish figuring out all the specifics like songs and speakers and what not and we were talking about who would baptize her, suggesting various members she had gotten to know in the ward when she said to me "well... could you baptize me?" I'd thought about the possibility that she might ask me but I wasn't expecting it. But I definitely said yes! So that was definitely a tender mercy from the Lord that I am very grateful for. She really is awesome. We might get an extra trip to the temple since she and a few other recent converts want to take some names and do baptisms. The Spirit was very strong at the service on Saturday. It was the 4th service I've been to as a missionary but I've never felt it that strongly. About half of the people in attendance were in tears. None of her family came but her dad is more respectful towards her about the church. I don't know if I told you this. I think I may have. She was planning on taking her life just before she found us. Of course I wouldn't have known otherwise, but in hindsight, the bigger picture almost breaks my heart. This truly is the Lord's work. Things happen on His timing. There can be no other explanation. She texted us Saturday night and said "today has been the best day of my life :)." What a wonderful experience.

Well that was the big highlight of the week obviously. haha. Transfer calls came Sunday morning and Grill and I are staying together another transfer. Patch and Newton, my district mates, are both going to be training new missionaries. Newton is getting transferred. I'll continue to be the district leader. According to President Godwin's trend, I will be training next transfer. It's pretty much already decided. haha.

I started the Bible 3 weeks ago and I'm on track to finish it by Christmas. I'm close to 2 Samuel. There are parts that are pretty dry (like Leviticus) but it's fairly interesting. There's a few aspects that I really like and I'm starting to like it more and more as I read it every day.

So we had an odd experience on Saturday. We had spent some time at the library basically researching the issues in our ballots (like I said, we'd already been given permission. haha) and when we were leaving some guys runs up to us and says "hey are you guys on your missions?" We talked to him for a minute and it turns out he was fairly interesting in Mormons and wanted to know more so we gave him our number and he said he'd call us later. So later comes and he calls and asks for me and basically tells me to convert him with my best sales pitch. Over the phone. I'm kinda like uhh... can we meet up sometime? Haha. I'm not a salesman. I'm a young goofy man that has a special truth that I'm trying to share with whoever will listen. So we set up a time to meet but he had a sudden financial emergency and now has to leave Barstow. Hopefully he will find the church wherever he ends up.

So I got the packages. It's still 2 weeks until my birthday so I just opened them haha. The battery fixed the problem... at first. But the same problem came back the next time I turned on the camera. So I knew at that point that it wasn't the battery. I monkeyed around with it for a while and found a short in the circuitry that I was able to jimmy so that now it's working again. So it wasn't the battery. The old battery still works but I guess I'll hold on to the newer one for when the old one does give out. And thank you so much for the protein! I be getting pumped up now. haha. So a while ago I said I had gotten up to 60 push ups or something but they weren't good push ups. I wasn't extending my elbow all the way. So I decided to extend my elbow all the way and I only did like 33. haha. This was back in June I think. So I've been working from that point and just hit 68. I have a goal to reach 100 by the end of my mission and I think I might actually reach it. We'll have to see

I've been talking to Elder Bagley back in Wrightwood. He's training a new missionary that is a big pain. My life is easy compared to his. One of the members even called me and was like can you come back? We miss you and this new missionary is rude and Bagley is struggling. There's not much I can do about the situation besides listen and try to empathize. He's probably going to call and talk to me again tonight.

Anyways. I'm trekin along! Us 4 missionaries sang in church on Sunday. We sang the army of helaman so that was pretty cool. Mom, I felt the same way about all 5 amendments/propositions as you to be honest. It just reafirms how I felt. The benefits just don't do enough to outweigh the negative affects and aspects of those propositions.

One last thing, P day is Wednesday next week because we'll be going to the 8:15 session of the temple! Hopefully. We have to find a ride but we're like 80 miles away so it will be tough. I might be able to get permission to drive the 4 of us myself if we can't find a ride though.

The church is true. This work is the Lord's. I've found that a mission is a 2 year test/trial of faith. That's really all it is. I know I'll be blessed in the end as long as I continue to faithfully do my part.

Love,

Elder Browning

C Scott Grew... Just a Little

October 16, 2012

Hey fam!

The week was in some ways slower but at the same time it wasn't. We found a few new investigators, but I don't know how promising they are. We started teaching 2 different couple out in the Newberry Springs area. Lee and Tina Frey and Bill and Pat Smith. I was on an exchange with Elder Smith (the one that was serving in Phelan and is now a zone leader) so I haven't met Bill and Pat. I guess they've been researching churches, especially ours, for years. We have dinner and a lesson with them this week though so I'll get a better idea then. Tina and lee are pretty open to learn but probably won't change. We'll see. They're pretty po-dunk. haha. Missin some... teef... "gators are so angry cuz they got all them teef and no toofbrush!" Hopefully Jeren knows what I'm quoting. HA.

Vera is getting baptized this saturday! We're super excited. I'll try and get pics from Grill's camera. We talked about the priesthood and she understood it pretty well. I'm not sure who is going to perform her baptism and confirmation. I have a feeling I might end up doing one of the two so that'll be pretty SWEET.

The other missionaries had two baptisms Saturday, a woman and her 9 year old son. I got to interview them and it was actually a pretty spiritual experience. Thomas, who was baptized a few weeks ago, got ordained a priest yesterday by Elder Grill.

Speaking of Elder Grill, he was up sick all Saturday night. I didn't think he would be up for church but I gave him a blessing with another elder from the ward and he didn't throw up again after that.

Well we saw Scott Grow! ha. ...sorry that's a lame joke. Anyways, we had a good meeting with C Scott Grow. He talked a lot about goal setting and some new ideas that we're going to implement. He also talked about less active work. President Monson read a scripture to the general authorities in Ezekiel that talks about the shepherds that are only feeding themselves and not the flock. So Elder Grow brought that scripture to us and the stake presidents. A lot of missionaries don't like less active work but I don't mind it. I guess there are more disobedient missionaries in the valley. Apparently Elder Grow was a little more "in their face" at their meeting (he had one for the desert and one for the valley) and is going to be doing follow up in a month. Oh well. Hopefully it's what they needed to hear.

You're sending me birthday presents early?? Oh goodness. I have to choose whether or not to open them? Great. At least that means I'll be for sure getting more mail. The only mail I've received since the first of September was your letter and package mom. I also just got a letter from Crystal on Saturday. Hopefully that trend is broken! haha

Some other ideas of things you could send from home... I think I left a pair of garments at home. I have to say, I'm never buying drilux crew neck garments again. The neck shrinks and it's almost like a turtleneck. The cotton ones are fine and the drilux round neck is good. Also, my neck is a tad bit wider and my shirts are tight at the neck. If you feel like sending me a long sleeve 16" neck that would be awesome. Oh! It's cold in the mornings and I wouldn't mind a headband when I go jogging. Is my "NB" headband still around?

That's everything I can think of. You don't have to send any of it if you already have in mind what you're sending. But if you wanted a few more ideas, there you go :)

When are Jeren's wedding pictures coming? Oh speaking of Jeren, one of the families here has a son named Jaren. We had dinner with them last night and it was SO WEIRD to hear Jeren's name said aloud. "Jaren will you pass the water?" etc etc. I did a double take every time his name was said haha. They served couscous and chicken cordon bleu. Mmm

Until next week, this has been Elder Browning, reporting live from Barstow.

Love,

Elder Browning

A Momentous Conference

October 8, 2012

Hey guys

What an announcement about the minimum age of missionaries huh? I could have left in June over a year ago and be about at the 18th month mark right now If the new rule had been in effect when I graduated. That's way cool for the the young women though. Now SO many more sisters can serve. I wonder if many of the girls I graduated with will head out right away. It will definitely cause a LOT more girls to seriously think about it. I bet the number of sister missionaries with multiply 4 fold over the next few years.

 

Well this week was just okay. Kinda blah. The other missionaries had a baptism fall through the day it was supposed to happen. The guy hadn't been able to keep the word of wisdom and we had to call a bunch of people and tell them the baptism was cancelled. That was a bummer. I also tweaked my neck somehow and it bothered me for several days. The mission nurse said I probably just slept on it wrong but it wasn't that kind of tweak. I first noticed it when I reached for something at dinner and lifted that bowl (potatoes I think) and it pinched in the back of my neck. It's gotten better but I'm still being careful. I also ate something that didn't agree with me. I don't throw up easily. So it just bothered me all of Wednesday. Darn spicy chili. haha.

We've had a few investigators drop us and haven't really been able to get a hold of all the others besides Vera. We'll keep trying though.

 

Vera is doing awesome. We've taught her all the missionary lessons and reviewed the interview questions for baptism and she passed with flying colors. She's going to wait until the 20th because weekends work best and the 13th is her brother's birthday. I love talking to her about the Bible because she has a great knowledge and understanding and her understanding has deepened a lot since she's started reading the Book of Mormon. She's super excited. She watched conference with us at the church yesterday and got up twice to go get tissues.

 

I really enjoyed conference. I have never taken as many notes as I did this time. I had a hard time with Uchtdorf's talk. He emphasized the importance of family and how we should regularly spend meaningful time with our families. It's been hard to have almost no family or friends as a part of my life for the last almost 9 months. Ah well. what do you do. They talked a lot about service and coming unto/back to christ. I hope some non members in barstow tuned in for Elder Nelson's talk.

 

Elder Grill hopped on the organ after the 2nd session yesterday and I got on the piano. It was kinda fun to play and improvise on a few songs together.

I had kind of a funny thing happen the other day. Well. It reminded me of a different similar funny occurrence. We were visiting an older woman and the whole time I was just bored out of my mind. I don't remember what she and elder grill were talking about. School and teaching people and stuff I think. Anyways. I was trying to just stay alert and I saw a black widow running on the ground towards her. I jumped out of my chair in between the two of them and slammed my foot on the spider. It was just kind of funny because it totally interrupted everything. I don't know. haha. Back in garrison creek ward one time I was ushering and I heard a slight commotion behind me and turned around and saw sister Tagart looking frantic. I then looked back forward and saw a giant spider running across the aisle and lept up and slammed my foot down on it in the middle of sacrament meeting. Lindsey halversen was out in the foyer and started laughing pretty hard. Sister Tagart wrote me a thank you card about it a few days later. haha

 

A few random q's. Did aubree and ryan get my goofy and slightly terrible pictures? Also... this is really random. How is the Nielsen family back in Washington? Besides Laura who is probably at school somewhere. I can't recall the last time I heard anything about them. I know they visited us like 2 years ago or something but it's been a while. They randomly crossed my mind several days ago and I thought I'd ask.

 

We have a mission tour with C Scott Grow this week. That'll be cool. Or he will throw down and we'll all be brought to a knowledge of our guilt. haha. The temple is closed this month, so we're supposed to go sometime in probably early November.

 

If a new battery works for the carmera that's cool. You can send me more StUfF for my birthday that way :) haha. The battery was holding a charge fine up until this point but it's definitely possible. I would think it would have needed to be charged more and more frequently and then have died but it is almost 4 years old now. haha. We'll see. Its a Nikon Coolpix S610.

I guess then the only things I'd specifically ask for would be what I've mentioned before. Protein and music. haha. I know I'm just oh so helpful.

 

Sorry if this email is LAme. haha. I'll try and make next weeks more exciting.

Peace!

Elder Browning

The First of Octember

October 1, 2012

Hey family!

We had a bit of a slower week, but a lot of that was due to the fact that we were preparing our lesson for Sunday. The whole time we were preparing our 5th Sunday lesson I kept thinking about the size of the Wrightwood ward and not the size of the Barstow ward. Barstow used to be two wards and is now just one big ward. So for our lesson we wound up using the projector and almost filling the stake center sized chapel. I was fairly nervous mostly because elder grill knew what he wanted to say but I had done more of the technological prep stuff. Video clips, quotes, an interactive study section, etc. But it worked out pretty well in the end. I'm good at winging stuff and we both had plenty to say. We taught the ward about missionary work and how they can be better missionaries. One young mother talked to us afterwards and tearfully expressed how she's going through a trial that has to do with missionary work and that we were inspired to say some of the things we said. So that was pretty awesome.

 

I was on an exchange on Wednesday with Elder Patch. He's pretty cool. We taught like 5 lessons that day and it was awesome. At our last appointment, we were teaching a woman named Andrea the Plan of Salvation and her boyfriend Ray showed up. We had just talked about Adam and Eve and he had some questions about that. I don't remember specifically what he asked but Elder Patch and I answered him and he didn't seem satisfied. He rephrased his question and we rephrased our answers but... still didn't work. I felt prompted to go to the scriptures and I read a few verses in Moses. When I looked up, Ray has this incredulous look on his face and said "wow... that makes so much sense. I need to read this. I gotta... I gotta read this book." He then randomly brought up the idea of becoming like Gods and I went to the Bible (2 Cor 7 I think) where it says we will be joint heirs with Christ. He thought that was way cool too and that it supported what he believed. He committed to be baptized and we gave him a blessing too since he had thrown out his back. He was tearful after the blessing and it was just an awesome experience. It's so cool and I am so grateful when the Spirit is present and influences me as a missionary.

 

I think I'm going to sandwich the bad news in my email. So. Bad news: my camera (Jeren's camera) is dying! I think it has a short in the circuitry. When I turn it on, it turns itself off within like 3 seconds. No lense error or anything, it just shuts down. If I hold down the power button when I turn it on I can use it normally to navigate or take pictures still but as soon as I let go of that button it turns itself off again. So it works, but it doesn't. I'll keep using it when I really need/want to take pictures but it's going to be quite a hassle. I might try and take it apart to see if I can fix it. Who knows. But I guess you can cancel pretty much all my birthday requests or move them to Christmas and send me a new camera instead. Or vice versa. haha. I guess I'll just add to that general "want" list and you can use your discretion :) I wouldn't mind some protein mix. My district mates are muscle heads and I might start P90x soon.

 

Vera is continually progressing. She's so awesome! She continually eats up everything we teach her. She spends most of her free time studying the scriptures. Like she'll even spend 3 or 4 hours in a day if she doesn't have too much homework. Crazy. Besides one or two more lessons she's ready to be baptized. She often talks about how other churches didn't understand her and didn't seem to understand some scriptures in the way that they're written and how everything we've been teaching her just makes so much sense. She loved the Plan of Salvation. She talked about how she had been thirsty for more, that something was missing in the scriptures and in her church. It's so COOL to see her light up more and more each time we visit with her. Did I already tell you she wants to serve a mission? Crazy! :)

 

So with things like who gets the last cookie or something like that, I'll sometimes jokingly say "I'll fight you for it," especially with my companion. I don't say it often but Elder Grill has decided to adopt it as his defensive phrase after he does something dorky. haha. He says something like "okay I'm going to stop now since I value my life." It makes me laugh because we really haven't gotten mad at each other much or anything. A few nights ago he said something similar and I said "you don't even know that I could beat you up" and he said "yes I do. You're bigger than me." And I looked at him and back at me and back at him and raised an eyebrow at him and he said, patting his stomach, "well. I'm bigger this way, but you have more muscle than me!" And I looked back at me and back at him and said "Grill, you weigh 50 pounds more than me." And he's like "so?!" So I was like alright lets go arm wrestle. And I uh... almost threw him out of his chair. haha. Poor guy. We did a stick pull too since he said he was a LOT better at that and he barely beat me after like a solid 6 or 7 seconds. We're going to do best 2 out of 3 though.

 

Umm what else. I got Paul Cardall's "New Life" cd. It's freaking AWESOME. I've grown to love beautiful, modern, classical-style music; strings, piano, maybe slight percussion and guitar... It's so good! I might make a copy and send the original home so that you can enjoy it too.

 

Anyways. That's what's up. It's October now but the highs are 100 for the next 3 days. Bah. Oh well. Only 1 or 2 more weeks of heat and then it'll just be warm and you can all be jealous when you get snow on Halloween :) haha.

Love, Peace... and preferably not war,

Elder Browning