10 Months

Hey family

 

I'm not sure I have as much to write about this week. It was the slowest week since I've been in Barstow. Hopefully you all had a good thanksgiving. We really didn't do much that day. We had dinner with the Wolcots. All the normal thanksgiving foods were there but it all tasted... off. haha. Funny how that is sometimes.

I talked to a couple missionaries about how they feel I'm doing leading the choir. I feel a little awkward and goofy, especially when I do more than just wave my arm to keep tempo. But several people said I'm doing a really good job and that I'm funny to watch. haha. At least they get a laugh out of it. We're singing like 6 songs... arrangements of Silent Night, Away in a Manger, What Child is This, O Little Town of Bethlehem; also Called to Serve and the Shepherds Carol. We'll be down the hill in Upland twice this week, once for the final practice on Wednesday and again for the Performance on Saturday. We sing at 7:30 pm and need to be there by 7. Since it's during rush hour, we need to leave by 5 to get there on time. We wont be done before 8:30 so we'll probably not be home until 10 that night. Gross.

 

I feel like I recognize when I am (was) prompted by the spirit more often. During District meeting, I had about 10 extra minutes at the end. I was unsure what to fill that time with and didn't want to try and squeeze in another role play. I decided to talk about how important it is to have the Spirit in all aspects of missionary work and the importance of faith and how everything hinges on obedience. I went on to talk about how oftentimes, even when we're trying to be obedient and do everything we can and have the Spirit with us, we still flounder. I told them simply that God lets us flounder sometimes and then pulls us out. I noticed elder patch taking notes so I talked to him afterwards and he said he liked what I said. However, I felt like I hadn't been very clear using the phrase that God lets us flounder, and I was thinking for a couple days about what I really meant. What I really meant is that God tries our faith, and during that trial, we may feel like we're floundering. We are not, however, on our own. Ever. If we were completely left to ourselves, forget about floundering; we would completely drown. However, when our faith has been sufficiently tried (and obviously we don't know what point that is), God then blesses us well beyond our own capabilities. It is at that point that we see blessings almost literally fall out of the sky. I felt like I should write that in a note to elder patch so I did and he told me the other night that it helped him out. A lot.

Anyways. That was probably my neat experience for the week so I thought I would share. I feel like that concept applies to all aspects of life as well.

 

We did some yard work service for Janeen on Friday. FINALLY. That's the only service I've done this whole transfer. It was nice to put on some jeans and get my hands a little dirty. We pruned a rose bush and some aloe vera plants and pulled out a bunch of grassy weeds around the bushes. Janeen has bad allergies so she can't do it herself. She really was planning on coming to church but got a large old computer monitor dropped on her foot and was going to the hospital saturday night to see if it was broken. It seems like it's just one physical barrier after the other with her. I can see why missionaries have stopped teaching her before; we're almost done with all the lessons and she hasn't been to church once while we've been teaching her. I don't want to be another set of missionaries to give up on her though, so we'll keep working with her.

 

The car we got isn't new. New to us, but definitely not new. It's a 2009 or 2010 Corolla with almost 46000 miles on it. Haha. So. No it doesn't smell like a new car. lol

 

You can probably just wait to send the jacket. The highs for this week are still in the 70s so we should be fine for a while. I've been trying to think for the past half hour what I might want for Christmas... I don't really have any requests. Maybe we'll just skip it this year. haha. Maybe you could skip the next 2 Christmases and my birthday and help me with a laptop for school when I get home? Or something similar? I know that's boring but it makes sense in my boring logical business mind. lol

 

Wow. Fin Fun is skyrocketting. How many sales is that a day? You have to be well over 100 now. Wow. Crazy how it just keeps on continuing to grow.

 

Kylee, a 9 year old that the other missionaries were teaching, got baptized on Saturday. I interviewed her earlier last week. The service was very nice. Since I'm the district leader, I have the keys to the font and so far have been the one to fill the font or every baptism. There are others that could but I always go earlier enough so that it would be full on time. They're a good family and the dad baptized and confirmed her; they just never got around to having her baptized at 8 I guess.

 

So here's an interesting scripture chain I did. You might call it the "Forgotten Rest" scripture chain. I'll let you look up the verses and put the references in order.

Helaman 7:20 and Isaiah 17:10, which reference each other -> Jeremiah 3:21 -> Jeremiah 6:16 -> Matthew 11:28. That's what I feel the name Forgotten Rest is really talking about. There are probably other verses that I have yet to add to the chain, but I will eventually.

 

Anyways. Until next week!

Love,

Elder Browning